Kim Possible: Aftereffects
by LJ58
Summary: High school is over, the aliens are gone, and Kim is facing the rest of her life. Only it's a little more complicated than she expected as she finds the more things change, the more they remain the same.
1. Chapter 1

I do not own Kim Possible, or any other Disney character. I'm just borrowing them for my own view of alternative tales.

_**Kim Possible: Aftereffects**_

_**By LJ58**_

"_Get over yourself. The world isn't just about you, KP. Everything doesn't have to be all about you. You can't run around like this forever. Sooner or later, you have to face your own destiny. And in the meantime, you need to consider remember that sometimes…..it's just about everybody else_. _Sometimes, you have to let the rest of the world have a chance."_

Kim sighed as she stood outside the small securities specialist shop called simply 'Go Security' where she had finally tracked _her_.

Four months ago, the world made sense.

At least, it did to her.

That was just before the aliens attacked. Just before _Ron and Drakken _saved the world. Just before Ron actually dumped her to go find his own destiny. Just before he told her he had more to do than chase after her, and help her 'save the world.'

Which was a laugh. Because that final proved conclusively even to her ego that she was not doing any saving that last time around.

In the end, she couldn't even stand up.

In the end, it was all Ron.

She got knocked flat, and left for dead. She would have been dead, an alien trophy, if Ron's mystical monkey power hadn't saved her, and everyone else. Her. Kim Possible. Saved by her 'sidekick.'

It was galling.

Embarrassing.

Almost as bad as his dumping her to go find his own destiny.

"_It's what I have to do, Kim_," he had told her in that suddenly serious, suddenly mature voice that made her feel like a selfish child.

He had smiled at her as if he were older and wiser in just those few months than she would ever be in years to come. Then he had told her what she had been suspecting for years. "_It's not like you really love me. You like me. And I like you, too. But it's not love. And it's not going to last. We both know that. We both know your heart has always belonged to another all this time."_

"_But I need you," _she had cried that final evening together, protesting the shameful secret that had haunted her of late. "_I need you with me. We're a team."_

That was all she had cried, fearful of any future without Ron to lean on. Fearful for once, and admitting it as she clung to him. Her best friend. That was when he had gently, but firmly pushed her away.

That was when he told her; "_Get over yourself_."

She stared at the shop she approached a few days later after Ron left her alone, surprised that Wade had finally tracked _her_ here. Alone. Just as she had been shocked to see her standing at Drew's side when he received the Medal of Freedom.

Drew Lipski. Savior of the world.

Ron, characteristic of him of late, gave the loopy man full credit for his deeds.

He had helped. Drew had actually taken down most of the machines with his mutant plants. But Ron had stood alone in the end, fighting the alien warriors, and taking them on like a peerless warrior. Like a real mystical monkey master. She had been shocked. Proud. And so very frightened.

Then _she_ disappeared while Drew withdrew from the fading limelight to try to continue his efforts to rid himself of the pollinator's mutation, and perhaps seek a way to top his first true success. And to him, his greatest shame. After all, it wasn't every super villain that ended up saving the world he was trying to conquer.

Now, Kim had finally found her.

She took a deep breath, and climbed out of the Sloth to head into the small, unassuming shop.

"With you in a sec," a gruff voice that still carried a familiar sardonic tone called from the back as she entered the shop.

"Shego," she murmured when the green-skinned woman in casual work clothes appeared, blinking in surprise at her presence at her counter.

"Kim Possible," the green-skinned woman in a plain green jumpsuit half smirked. A blue-collar uniform rather than her trademark costume. "Don't tell me _you_ need a security system?"

"What? Oh, no. I….I just wanted to…..talk. If that's okay?"

"Sure. Free country. Still a free world, too, thanks to your boyfriend."

"He's not my boyfriend. He left."

"Finally wised up, huh," Shego couldn't help digging.

"I guess. Listen, I didn't want to talk about him. I wanted to talk about….us."

Shego actually looked confused.

"Shego……?"

"Whoa. Okay. For the record, it's Sheila now. Just plain Sheila. Says so on my pardon, and my business cards. Shego? She's gone. Retired. Finito. So, what's on your mind, Kimmie," she asked, glancing at a clock. "Because I have a two o'clock appointment I can't miss."

"It's just…. Well…. All those times we fought. I started getting the feeling there might be something….."

"Whoa. Hold it. Stop right there, Kim," the older woman held up her hands and actually looked ready to break out laughing.

Kim felt her heart clinch.

"I think I know where this is going. Only it's _not_ happening, Princess. Whatever you thought you felt? I was riding you. Fu….. Uh, screwing with your head. Trying to take you out of your game. C'mon, girl. You're still a _child_ compared to me," Sheila Go laughed now. "And let's face it. I like men. _Male_ men. You flatter me, but….. Nuh-uh. Not happening. 'Kay?"

"'Kay," Kim smiled weakly. "I….I was just confused, is all. Trying to put things….in perspective. I….."

"Excuse me," an elderly man broke in as the door chimed. "I was told you could help me with….

"Oh, beg your pardon, Miss. I'll wait till you're…."

"I'm done," Kim choked out, and turned to leave without looking back. "Go right ahead."

"Well…..if you're….."

She rushed out, and climbed into the car. She didn't even try to drive. Just hit auto-drive, and let the car take her away from there. Tears blinded her anyway, and she didn't want to risk an accident. Shego, the woman she had long respected, admired, and maybe even liked, had turned her down. Brushed her aside like an adolescent crushing on her teacher. Her female teacher. Ron was off chasing his destiny. Shego had a real job. Even Bonnie was marrying Junior. Meanwhile, she was……

God, she was pathetic. And that old man hadn't even recognized her. Talk about fame being fleeting.

She heard Ron's voice in her head again, telling her to get over herself.

"Fine," she eventually murmured. "I'm done. I'm through," she told herself. "As of now, I am officially over it," she choked, and reached for the car's controls. It was time to find her own real destiny. She'd do it, and she'd do it alone. Without help. Without favors.

After all, she was a Possible.

_**KP**_

"Say, aren't you…..?" Kim looked up to see a Freshman looking at her with that expression she used to enjoy. The fawning adulation. The worship.

"Sorry. I can guess what you're going to say, but I'm not her."

"You're not Kimberly Possible?"

"Depends on the one you mean."

"Huh," the obviously confused blonde girl blinked.

"You either want the college tutor. Or the hero. I'm the former."

"Oh, right. That's who I wanted. But now that you mention it, you do look like a picture I once saw….."

"Nope. I'm just a tutor."

"But you look like….."

"I get that lot," she smiled wanly, and looked up from her book as she realized her coffee had gone cold while she was absorbed in the book on Quantum Mechanics she was reviewing. "That's why I kind of shot you down. After constantly hearing the same thing, it got a little tiring."

"Oh. Yeah, I guess. I would think it would be cool having the same name and looks as someone that famous."

"You'd think," she sighed, "But it's actually a pain," she told her. "People actually expect you to do things. They watch you, and wait for you to chase after some bad guy, or something weird like that. I'm not even a cheerleader," Kim told her.

_Not anymore_, she thought to herself, thinking of almost four solid years of college without any of the usual volunteering she once did. Unless you counted tutoring.

"So…..tutoring? What subject?"

"Pre-Cal," the woman groaned.

Kim sighed as she closed her book. Not even a challenge. Still, it beat doing nothing, and she was paid. She was a TA after all. And she had expenses.

"Let's see where you are," Kim smiled, and gestured for her to sit down.

_**KP**_

"Where are they now," the woman on the television screen asked as a series of faces flashed across the screen.

Bored, restless, and not wanting to admit it, Sheila forced herself to watch the pedantic show of stars who had fallen from grace, or just fled their own fame. Then she saw a young, smiling redhead, and her attention froze.

"You all remember Kim Possible," the announcer stated confidently. "The girl who could do anything."

"Doy," she told the announcer with the fake dental work.

"In over four years after her greatest challenge in helping rid Earth of invading aliens, the adventuring redhead has yet to show her face anywhere near a disaster, or a crime in progress. No one knows _why_ she suddenly vanished, or where she went."

The announcer was replaced by an image of Dr. Director, looking older and harried as she was surrounded by cameramen.

"Dr. Director, is it true Kim Possible was put in cryogenic suspension after being injured by aliens," one of the reporters actually asked her. The questions actually got worse from there.

The woman didn't even yell '_No comment_,' as she fixed her good eye balefully on the crowd, and bulled her way through them.

"With no help from Kim Possible's former comrade-in-arms, we turned to her family."

"Comrade-in-arms," Sheila laughed. "Who writes this stuff?"

Then a familiar face came on screen as Dr. James Possible was caught coming out of the science center where he worked.

"Dr. Possible, is it true your daughter went out into space in pursuit of the Lorwardians," a reporter demanded.

"Do you actually have an IQ, or were you being serious," the at times absentminded rocket scientist asked in turn.

His responses grew worse, too, leaving the media befuddled, and Sheila giggling as she recalled that time she lived with the family as 'Miss Go.' Then Anne was seen outside the hospital, and she loved her response.

"Dr. Possible. A second please. No one has seen your daughter in years. Is there any truth to the rumors she and her former rival Shego are living together as lovers on some remote tropical island?"

"Are you insane," the neurosurgeon asked bluntly. "Or are you suffering from tumors that just make you sound stupid or delusional? If you like, I can give you a full cranial examination. Feel free to check in with my office any time," she said, and climbed into her car and drove off.

Sheila wasn't laughing now.

That last question hit home for her.

She was still remembering the look in Princess' eyes that day she blew her off. For a moment, even she had to admit her heart had raced, and her body had tensed when her longtime nemesis walked into her shop out of nowhere. To hear her falter over the reason for her arrival was almost cute. And damning.

Even she never expected to see what she did when she blew her off, though.

Defeat.

She had finally beat Kim Possible, and it had felt…..bad.

Before she could even go after her, though, the old man had distracted her, and the redhead had driven off. And promptly disappeared.

"We attempted to speak with Kim's brothers, but the eccentric, young inventors were….preoccupied and unable to respond," the announcer was going on.

Sheila did snigger now.

She knew that was the announcer's way of saying you took your life into your hands when you got near those two. Literally took your life into your hands. She wouldn't doubt a few of those camera men might have ended up in the hospital knowing the 'tweebs, as Kimmie had always called them.

"Her former companions in Team Possible have also vanished, and it leads us to ask one more time, 'Where is she now?' If you know, feel free to call our network with any information, leads, or tips on the elusive Kim Possible. If your information leads to an update, you just might be the next star on….."

"Yada, yada, yada.

"I guess Pumpkin finally wised up, and took off," she sighed as she eyed the blank screen after she snapped the program off.

Sheila's restlessness died stillborn in the wake of that program, which she tried not to think about as she walked to her bedroom to retire for the night without locking up. Anyone stupid enough to break in on her deserved what they got. She might be 'reformed,' but she was still her own best security. Still. Almost five years without a sign of her? Where had Kimmie gone? What was she doing now? A part of her wouldn't mind knowing. Not that she was worried. No way. Far from it. She was just….curious.

_**KP**_

Kim frowned as she stared into the insulated carrier at the fragments resting in special cases, and looked back at Dr. Olsen. "Is this really it? The original Go City comet?"

"Well, fragments of the original," the older, balding man smiled. "That is why I called you in, Dr. Possible. We don't have anyone else in the region remotely qualified to study and catalog this anomaly."

"I thought it had been studied before now," she shook her head as she considered the attached file. "What brings back interest in these samples now?"

"Well, to be honest, Dr. Possible, a recent discovery may have altered what we think we know of the legendary Team Go's mutations. We first considered that the exploding meteor, or comet, simply infused them with unknown radiological elements that caused their genetic mutations."

"Yes, I am familiar with the team's history."

"Yes, well, do you also know that recent surveys found a few larger surviving fragments in the vicinity that after precursory examination, suggested there are actually trace fragments of…..alien DNA embedded in the pieces. That's why we called you in, Dr. Possible. With your specialties, and your own familiarity with Team Go, we hoped you might help us finally unravel the mystery of the rainbow comet, as it is euphemistically called. It could well even unlock secrets of genetic mutation, or human evolution itself if I am right."

Kim smiled at that slip. Robert Olsen was a maverick in the astrobiology field. It was one of the reasons she chose to work with him. She liked his reputation, and that most considered him a quack or outright lunatic didn't bother her.

She was still so focused on her building her own career at twenty-three after earning her degree, two masters, and a PhD in just three and a half years that she rarely even saw home very often now. At least most of the questions had died down by now. They even had a stupid program about her life on last week. As if she were some over the hill star from decades past.

So not the drama, she reminded herself.

"All right, Dr. Olsen. I think we should start with a basic……"

She frowned as someone knocked at the door.

"Oh. That must be the security specialist I called. With these pieces being housed here for our use, I wanted to ensure we were well protected," the pudgy man smiled. "After all, we are dealing with some unknown forces here, and potentially dangerous ones at that. Just the sort of thing to bring out the lunatics."

"Okay, Dr. Olsen. I'll start with precursory full-spectrum exams after I get these logged in while you take care of….whatever," she smiled over her shoulder at him.

"Thank you, my dear. And welcome aboard," he smiled, making Kim feel quite good.

It made her feel as if she belonged to something again. It was, admittedly, a good feeling.

_**KP**_

Ron's eyes were closed as he stood barefoot and bare-chested before the nine men who held staffs before them. He waited in a deceptively casual stance, his expression relaxed, his demeanor calm. The moment the nine bo staffs came at him, he seemed to explode into action without actually moving from where he stood. Hands flashed, and his body seemed to weave and duck, but his feet never moved.

Not one of the nine ninja around him got close. When he straightened up, eyes still closed, expelling a cleansing breath, all nine ninja were sprawled out around him. Unconscious.

"Very good, Stoppable-San," the increasingly ancient Sensei spoke to him as he summoned him to his side with a mere nod of his head. "You have improved over the years until I know I have made the right decision. As fate has put the Lotus Blade into your capable hands, so, too, do I now put something even more precious in them.

"Master," Ron asked quietly, walking beside the old man who seemed ageless to him.

"Stoppable-San, you need not call me master any longer. You are to become the next sensei of Yamanouchi. You have already surpassed me, and in only a few years time. You are truly the ultimate monkey-master that legend foretold."

"What is it you are saying, Sensei," Ron asked him quietly, sensing something weighing on him.

"Stoppable-San, I must ask you where your heart lies. It is very important."

"My heart is here, Sensei," Ron told him quietly but firmly. "I am no longer torn. If the invaders taught me anything, it was that I cannot deny who, or what I am. But I thought the next sensei of Yamanouchi had to be a member of your family?"

"And so you shall be, Stoppable-San. After you wed my granddaughter, Yori."

Ron said nothing.

"She is pleasing to you, is she not," he asked.

"She is a skilled warrior, and a beautiful woman," Ron told him quietly. "But does Yori wish this also? I would not want to….."

"It would be my honor to wed the man I have long admired, and respected. And always loved, Ron-San," as a soft murmur from behind tickled his ear.

Now Ron smiled.

Of all the ninja in the school, only she seemed able to still come up behind him. To surprise him.

"Yori-San," he nodded to her as she joined them. "I take it you have already discussed this with Sensei?"

"She has, Stoppable-San. I am an old man. My time is passing. Before it does, I would see my line extended. Will you wed Yori, son of my heart, and oversee Yamanouchi's future?"

"It would be my honor, Sensei," he said as he bowed low before him.

_**KP**_

"Be out of your way in a sec, Red," a gruff voice told her as Kim used a special electron-scanning microscope to peer into one of the larger fragments of the meteor before her.

Kim tensed at the sound of that vaguely familiar voice, slowly looking away from the yellowish stone that was actually very porous with a peculiar tinting that still had a faint glow. The other spectral colors were present, but faded. As if something had been taken from them. Something vital. The yellowish samples remained slightly phosphorescent, which was more than intriguing. It also suggested, as the professor had claimed, that there might be something organic to its base. She had been studying that sample all day since the start of the third day of her research when that voice cut into her concentration.

She turned to stare at a green-skinned woman who was eyeing a nearby door with a thoughtful gaze, and a toolbox in her hand stenciled with '_Go City Security' _on the side. Kim turned back to her work, and said nothing.

"Okay, Doc," Shego spoke casually, neither one of them looking toward the other. "I just gotta drill here a minute, so don't let it……"

The outer wall exploded before the green-skinned woman could finish whatever she was about to say.

"Knock, _knock_," a curt, heavily accented voice drawled as a short, rotund man in a billowing….mumu?….stood in the gaping hole surrounded by two fierce looking robotic creatures.

"Professor Dementor," Kim spat in genuine shock.

"Am I to be knowing you," the man with a now gray beard spat. "_Nein_. I do not be thinking so. Now just be handing over the comet debris, and I will being gone _without_ harming you, fraulein."

"I don't think so," Kim swore, and spared a glance to see Shego was down, a section of the wall having half buried the woman when it fell in on her.

"I see you still like wearing dresses," Kim spat, stepping between the mad dwarf and the workstation where the comet's fragments were in full view under their glass cover until she was ready to pull them out for study.

"It is a _housecoat_," he wailed. Then blinked, frowned, and then watched as Kim slowly pulled off her lab glasses, and stared coldly his way. "Wait. Kim….Possible? You are now a scientist?" The man laughed manically. "This is being my lucky day. I will take the elements to empower my new bio-warriors, and _put an end to you _once and for all," he crowed.

"I don't think so," she said again, glancing back at Shego who was still out cold.

"What are you waiting on, you mechanical fools. _Kill her_," the man still favoring his ridiculous helmet shouted.

The two powerful automatons started forward.

She didn't wait for them to reach her.

"Let's see. Mark II industrial movers," she parroted from a recent commercial. "Suitable for home, or professional use," she said as she lunged under one sweeping metal claw, and rolled up behind the first robot. "But not too bright," she said, adding her own assessment while standing up as the second aimed its claw at her.

She somersaulted over the mechanical creature's head, and smirked as the claw ripped into the back of the first robot, shorting it out as she came down on the trapped limb, and used it bounce over the second machine to land behind Dementor.

"Nighty-night," she smiled, and slammed his helmeted head into an exposed stud.

The man dropped like a stone.

The second robot spun around, ripping out its own still trapped arm, and using the other to send her flying into the lab table where her precious fragments lay exposed, sending them flying when even the heavily insulated case shattered after she, table and all went flying on impact.

"Snap," she groaned and climbed to her feet. "Forgot they're also persistent," she told herself, and picking up a broken table leg, she ducked out of the way of the pincher now trying to grab or impale her, and rolled to one side, then the other, and finally found the vulnerable chink in the robot's body armor that she was seeking.

Driving the wooden leg up into the small space, she just ducked another swipe as she spun around to give a hard back kick to the wooden spear that drove deep into the vulnerable electronics, shorting out the device, and shutting down the robot. It staggered and jerked to a stop, and she stood panting near the gaping wall for a moment as she surveyed the damage.

"Good thing….I still work out," she said with a faint grin at the fallen Dementor, a little surprised to find the man was actually still trying to play these games. Which, she to admit, was how she had viewed the whole hero thing at the time. No wonder Ron had left.

She looked back at Shego, who was only starting to move as she heard sounds of sirens approaching. Better late than never.

"Sheg…" She stopped, and shook her head. "_Sheila_," she called, approaching the woman who groaned as she stirred restlessly, and tried to move only to find half her body pinned down by debris.

"Just a minute, Sheila," she called, and leaned over her. "I'll get you….."

"Get away," Sheila howled, and her body exploded in green fury even as Kim howled in pain as her face was slashed by Shego's flailing, free hand. Kim fell back as she half turned away, clutching at her face while feeling blood flowing as every inch of her face burned, and she blindly tripped over something and fell hard. Something squelched in her suddenly sensitive ears, and then her face was really burning, and she screamed again before she passed out.

"Damn it," Shego growled about the same time, tearing her way out of the rubble that covered her. For a moment she had been trapped in a nightmare. An old nightmare, but a potent one. She lashed out, but found only shattered concrete, and broken wood covering her.

So why had she heard someone cry out?

She turned and saw two smoldering construction robots near the fallen wall, and a smaller, squat shape slumped near that opening. Then she fixed on the white-coated figure who lay sprawled face-down near her.

"Damn. Did those things kill her," she choked as she dusted herself off, and went to check on the fallen scientist whose face was obscured with blood, and tangled red hair as far as she could see. But what happened to the robots, she wondered idly as she slowly turned the woman over she thought looked a little like……

"Kimmie," she ground out, staring in horror as she clutched the still slender redhead to her as she stared at her ravaged face. And the vicious claw marks that marred one side of her face, and had obviously torn out her left eye.

Only that socket wasn't empty. Not anymore. Something….pulsed in it. Something….yellow.

"My God. My God," the old doc that had hired her cried out as he only then arrived at the scene of the chaos. "What happened? What happened."

"Global Justice," a grim voice called out from the broken wall. "No one move."

"We need help," Sheila cried. "She's hurt. _Kim's_ hurt!'

"Shego," that grim, stern voice sounded as the blue-uniformed woman turned from the fallen Dementor.

"It's _Sheila_," she screamed inanely, hugging Kim to her.

"What the hell happened here, woman?"

"No clue. But Kim's hurt. Help her," she begged Betty as she clutched at Kim's limp body as Dr. Olsen stared at his fallen researcher with eyes hugely rounded at the sight before him.

"The comet," he realized, staring at her eye. "She….She has been affected by the comet."

"What comet," Shego and Betty both spoke as one.

"The Go City comet fragments. We were studying them. We think…. We are certain…. We found _alien_ DNA embedded in them."

"Alien….DNA," Shego croaked.

"This is Dr. Director," Betty pulled out a radio to bark commands. "I need an _Alpha_ level containment on this location. "And get medicos in here now."

"I'm so sorry, Kimmie," Sheila sniffed as she continued to hold the limp body in her arms, knowing, as Betty, that those claw marks were hers. She had hurt Kim.

One more time.

_To Be Continued…………_


	2. Chapter 2

**I do not own Kim Possible, or any other Disney character. I'm just borrowing them for my own view of alternative tales.**

_**Kim Possible: Aftereffects**_

_**By LJ58**_

**Part 2:**

"How is she," Sheila asked as she was finally allowed out of the holding cell after her statement was taken five times by five different people, and the security cameras she herself had installed before the attack on the lab backed up her claim of unwittingly striking out at Kim. Trust was still in short supply when it came to 'Shego' in the eyes of the law.

They also cleared up the mystery of what happened as Betty even let her watch her erstwhile rival take out two industrial robots converted to evil purposes with an ease that surprised her. The cheerleader still had some serious skills. She made it look easy, too. Right up until Sheila backhanded her, tearing out her eye, and sending her reeling to land face-first atop one of the still glowing fragments.

"You could tell me more than I could," Betty said as they watched the woman with a heavily bandaged face in the medical bay before the glass quarantine wall. "I never did learn everything about your family's exposure."

"We….tend to be quiet about that. We got sick of the whole lab rat thing early on," Sheila told her.

"How about a beginner's guide then? Short version for expediency's sake?"

Shego stood quietly for a long before finally drawing a deep breath. Then she nodded, and said, "Well, I'm sure you hear the official version. Comet. Boom. Instant powers, and Hego decided to fulfill his idiotic fantasies of heroic adventuring."

"Yes," Betty nodded, her tone suggesting she had never really bought the clean and simple version herself.

"Well, that version left out the week spent in a coma, and the days of excruciating pain after we woke up. That was followed by the gradual realization that we were not quite human any longer," Sheila told her. "For whatever reason, I got hit hardest. And….well, you have seen me in action," she shrugged.

She sighed for a moment before going on.

"My brothers were, I think, actually lucky. Hell, they could shrink, split apart, and then Hego, or course, turned into a real muscle head. But I was….am…..altered even more for some reason. The claws, the plasma. The…. instincts. And unlike my brothers, I couldn't turn off my power. My skin didn't go back to normal when I wasn't using my power. They never got how that made me feel. Sometimes, I used to think I could even hear another voice inside my head. I thought I was going nuts," she found herself admitting to someone else for the first time in her life.

"And now here I am babbling family secrets to a woman that's spent half her life trying to put me away."

"Right now, I'm only concerned with Dr. Possible," Betty told her calmly.

"Doctor….? Oh, yeah. The whole scientist thing. Who knew," she smiled weakly.

"So. Anything else? Anything that might help here?"

"I don't know how much that little fruitcake you hired told you, but it's probably more than I know. The authorities snatched up the comet's pieces faster than we could recover, and we never heard spit from them. Oh, wait, that was you," Sheila remembered.

"Yes," Betty agreed. "My people had apparently loaned out the fragments for continued research, feeling that Dr. Olsen's theories were worthy of study. No one bothered to point out why or where?"

"So you didn't really know Kim was part of his team….? Okay, stupid question. What the hell was that freak Dementor doing there, though. I thought he'd be in a nursing home for retired villains by now."

"Actually, I found out he just broke out of a prison hospital. Apparently, he saw the interview with Robert Olsen about the alleged alien DNA embedded in the fragments, and envisioned an army of warriors with powers like Team Go at his disposal."

"Doy. Where do these guys come from," she sighed.

"You tell me. You worked with one of the worst," Betty reminded her.

"Don't remind me. Besides, I left that all behind. Far behind," she said as she recalled a final encounter with 'Drewbie' and his mother, in which the latter proposed on behalf of her witless son. She couldn't quite hide the shudder that ran through her body.

Betty managed a wry smile. "Some of us were betting you two would marry and settle down after the award ceremony."

"Us? You mean me and…..? Oh, no. No, no, no, no," she shook her head vehemently. "Not ever. Not even a chance. Not one small, tiny, miniscule possibility. He was an employer, and nothing else. Besides, have you _met_ his mother? God. Talk about issues," she shuddered as she recalled her 'proposal' in which she fairly demanded Shego 'do the right thing' and make an honest man of her little Drewbie.

"I'm debating calling Dr. Possible's family," Betty said after a moment of silence as they watched Kim's unmoving body. "It's been three days already."

"We were out… Well, I was out eight days. The guys were out six or seven. I'm not really sure. Still, I remember that I was out eight."

"After which you woke up to pain?" "Like you can't even imagine," Sheila shuddered, that nightmare one of many she still carried.

"I'll have the medical team standing by with painkillers. Just in case."

"It won't make a difference."

"Pardon?"

"Look. They hit us with everything known to man, and it might as well have been sugar pills. The kind of pain we suffered. It was soul-deep. If I were you, I'd wait about calling Kimmie's folks. Wait till it's over. One way, or the other. Believe me, it'll be best for all of them. You don't want to subject them to what may be coming if she reacts the way we did."

"You think it will be that bad?" Sheila said nothing.

"From what you say, it's a wonder you didn't all go insane," Betty finally commented.

Sheila smiled wanly. "Who said we didn't, Bets? I mean, have you really ever _talked_ to Hego?" Betty only sighed by way of reply.

_**KP**_

"She's coming out of it," the nurse reported to Shego and Betty early on the tenth morning.

Shego had pretty much been haunting GJ headquarters since she had been brought in, even though she was free to go. Betty allowed it since she remained the best source of genuine information for what could yet happen to the redhead she still hoped might one day return to be her protégé. Both women looked up from their morning coffee, and left their cups behind to rush to the medical bay without hesitation.

"Kim," Shego choked as she looked into the room, and saw her moving restlessly beneath restraining straps now holding her to the bed, a faint golden glow surrounding her body.

"Go on in," Betty told her as Shego put a green hand on the door, hesitating, but not sure why. "We'll wait."

Shego pressed through the door, and let it close before the sealed quarantine room let her go inside. Of all GJ's people, Shego knew she was the one that had the least to fear, and even Betty felt she was all right since she was already affected by whatever it was that now permeated Kim's bloodstream. And there was something there. Trace elements, and an unknown DNA fragment that was proving tenacious as it attached itself to Kim's own genes. A reluctantly given tissue sample proved Sheila had the same DNA, it just not as concentrated in her own body.

Kim, however, had five times the amount of those foreign particulates that now saturated her body, making Betty more than concerned for the unconscious redhead laying in a sealed room before her. She was also as curious as she was concerned over how that unidentified matter might alter the already inestimable young woman.

"Kim," Shego called out softly, approaching the bed where the sweat-soaked, writhing woman tossed as best she could beneath the restraints recently added as she started showed signs of waking. After Shego's story of her own ordeal, no one wanted to take any chances with Kim. Not since they noticed the redhead now had long, dark claws replacing her once soft nails.

Just like Shego's own which she had once masked behind gloves cleverly designed to fool most people into thinking they were artificial, and not her own, real talons.

Kim jerked as Shego approached her, but with her eyes, still swathed, the woman still could not see. Or rather eye, Sheila corrected herself.

"Kimmie, it's me. It's….Shego."

"She….goooooo," the woman on the bed tensed, her body suddenly so taut beneath the thin gown, and thinner sheet that Sheila could literally see every corded muscle. That single word was torn from her throat, raw and expressive, and…..very disturbing.

"It's okay, Kimmie….."

"Get away," Kim shrieked when Sheila touched her pale cheek, and Sheila howled as something slammed her across the room in the blink of an eye.

"Damn," she sputtered, looking up from the floor as the golden glow flared all the more around the redhead, and Betty's uneasy voice came over the intercom.

"Shego, get out of there. We've got unknown energy readings going off the scales in there. It may not be safe…."

"Says the one-eyed bitch to the green-skinned mercenary," Sheila muttered, lapsing into familiar patterns as she pushed herself to her feet, and rubbed the back of her skull. Her very sore skull. Thank God for accelerated healing abilities, she thought as she felt that hard knot where she had hit the unyielding wall harder than she realized. As hard as she hit, she was surprised the darn wall hadn't cracked even if it were concrete.

"Kimmie," Shego called out. "_Princess_! It's me. It's Shego," she called out to her as she approached her again. "You've got to control yourself. You don't want to do something stupid here," she told her. "You don't want to live with that kind of nightmare. Believe me," she said, pushing her way through the glow that now surrounded the bed like a physical presence. It even felt that way as she pushed through it with genuine effort as if the glow were a hand trying to shove her back.

"Kimmie, you have to relax. Fight it. I know you can do it. If I could, I know you can. Just don't let it control you," she said, barely noticing the hot tears spilling down from her eyes as her body flared beneath her own green aura that now surrounded her as she finally reached Kim, and put her arms around her in a protective embrace.

"Just….don't give in," Shego whispered as the wiry body stopped convulsing, and the glow surrounding Kim softened.

"I'll be damned," Betty murmured as four nurses, and five doctors stared at the pair as their auras melded, and turned a pale, unearthly blue that fluttered around both women, still flecked with bits of bright gold here and there.

"Sheee….goooo," Kim rasped again, this time sounding more like herself. More like a hurt, slowly recovering woman in pain.

"I know, Pumpkin. It hurts like hell," Shego whispered. "But it will pass. I promise," she said, stroking her pale cheek.

"You're…..okay," Kim asked, her hands trying to reach, and Shego gave a quavering laugh.

"I'm not the one in a hospital bed, doof," she told her.

"Oh. Can't….see," she moaned.

"I know, Kimmie. I know. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I didn't know…."

"Dementor…..?"

"Bets got him. He's locked away again all nice and snug."

"Good."

Then she moaned again.

Shego knew the pain was only just starting. Once you woke up, that was when it got you. As if it were waiting for you. Stalking you. Waiting until you were conscious enough to feel it as it began to tear at every nerve in your body.

"Shego," Kim croaked again.

"Yeah, Pumpkin?"

"Don't….leave me," she begged, her hands flexing spasmodically in her shackles, still trying to reach. To touch.

"Never, Princess."

"P-Promise?"

"I promise," Shego wept on her shoulder as she held her, and felt her trembling now. Shuddering with the pain that was only going to get worse.

When the screaming started, Sheila wanted to scream, too. She was reliving her own nightmare, and yet she wouldn't….couldn't let go.

Unlike her own nightmare, no one died this time.

_**KP**_

"You look worn out," Betty murmured three days later as Shego sat picking at her food, eyes hooded, staring at nothing.

"I told you it was bad," the woman shrugged, her hair showing traces of mossy green where her dye was fading again without its periodic touchups. One more thing that would be green if she didn't keep a trace of vanity about her.

"You didn't have to stay."

Shego's look was almost venomous. "I promised her I'd stay."

Betty said nothing.

"I can see this is tearing you up, though. Maybe you need a break…."

"She's almost through it. And no one died this time. That's a good thing. Besides, I'll recover. I always do," she grumbled, and withheld the one piece of information that even now she felt GJ didn't need to know.

"Yes, you do. But what do you mean no one died this time? We don't have any reports of deaths involved in your….?"

"Not officially. But….. Off the record," Shego asked her abruptly, and looked at Betty so earnestly that the agent had to study her a moment before she nodded.

"You have my word," the hade of GJ nodded again.

Shego looked around the mostly empty cafeteria, and sighed.

"Back then…. When we woke up…. _I_ woke up…. Well, obviously, I was different. My glow….my bio-plasma as some egghead called it, was deadly before I learned to control it. I mean, hey, I can melt and tear through steel for God's sake. But my mother didn't know that, though. None of us did….yet. My…..My mother just saw her little girl in pain. She….She tried to hug me, to comfort me, and…..and I couldn't control it. I…..vaporized her. Just…..burned her up so fast…..so completely…..there wasn't even ash left."

Shego's head dropped as a single tear dropped onto the table before her.

"My God," Betty murmured. "We were told your mother died in the initial impact. Her body never recovered."

"Yeah, well, it beats the truth when you're trying to break into the whole hero shtick," Shego remarked bleakly.

"And….your brothers? Did they….?"

"First off, their glows were harmless. Big joke, right? That's why Mom didn't even think twice about trying to help me. And, yeah, they knew what happened. They were all pretty much over the worst of it when mom came running to my bed, and…..and I killed her."

"Damn," Betty murmured.

"Yeah. Life sucks that way. We tried to write it off as an accident. Well, it was. I guess. I wanted to forget it. Forget the whole powers thing, and try to live a normal life. But Hego just wouldn't let the whole comic book hero thing go. He had to make everything larger than life. Make us larger than life. In the end, I just couldn't keep going. I felt like a fraud. Then they started putting out posters," she frowned, shaking her head. "_Posters_," she grimaced.

"I've seen some of the nostalgia stuff."

"Kim still had one of my old ones in her closet," she blurted out.

Betty's brow arched over her good eye.

"I saw it back during the whole….goody-goody thing after Electronique zapped us that time."

"Right. I recall the incident. A lot of us hoped you would have remained….good. Still, I guess things worked out."

They sat in silence after that, and Shego finally pushed to her feet.

"Gotta go see….."

"Shego, you need to eat."

"No. No, I need to see Kimmie. I know how she's going to feel. I know what she's going to need."

"Need?"

"You've got her locked up like a pet science project. But believe me, she's going to want some fresh air now that most of the pain is fading. Let me take her up on the roof today."

"We're still not sure…."

"You'll figure it out. _We_ did, and we were kids. Just let me take her up there, or…..God help us if we find out the hard way what the glow of hers can do if she snaps."

Betty considered that as she recalled watching Shego slammed into a wall so hard she should have broken bones. Then came the screaming, while everything loose in the room was lifted, levitated, and thrown around like a whirlwind was loose in the room. All while the two women remained safe in the 'eye' of whatever storm Possible had apparently unleashed.

"All right. But only the roof."

"That's all I'm asking, Betty," Shego murmured, thinking that she needed some air, too. And sun. _Lots_ of sun.

That was the secret only the members of Team Go knew, and never shared. They needed sun like a plant needed sun. They could live for short periods inside, or in the dark. In the end, they would actually wither if they didn't get enough sun. Most people thought she was just a hedonistic sun worshipper. In a way she was, but only because she needed that warmth to survive. And to keep her powers charged. It was past time she got herself back out in the daylight. And it couldn't hurt Kimmie, either. Not now that she was over the worst of it, and would likely be needing the same 'charge' if she was right about the redhead's own changes.

_**KP**_

"Shego," Kim asked, sitting up in her bed this morning as Shego entered the room without worrying about quarantine now that the doctors were assured everyone that whatever happened was not contagious, or likely to spread to others. Once again, it was direct contact with comet fragments that had screwed up another life.

"Hey, Pumpkin," she smiled as she saw the woman look her way in spite of her bandaged eyes.

"I almost feel normal again," she said with a faint smile.

"You look good."

"What happened to me? I don't remember anything after I reached for you. It's all been a blur."

"Tell you what. Why don't I take you out for some fresh air, and we can talk privately."

"I'd love that," she admitted. "No one is telling me anything. They give me that creepy feeling like I'm dying, or something."

"It's not that bad," Sheila laughed.

"Yeah, well I felt like it these last few days. Do they know why I….?"

"Kim. I'll tell you everything. After we go outside."

"Okay," she smiled at her. "Thanks, Sheg…..ah, Sheila. Sorry," she actually blushed. "Old habit."

"It's okay, Pumpkin," she told her quietly, realizing Betty had never once called her Sheila, and she had been so distracted she had not bothered to correct her. "I understand."

Thirty minutes later, sitting in her wheelchair atop the local GJ building that was known only to a handful of locals, Kim sat quietly absorbing Sheila's words of what had happened, and how, and why. She was even told Shego's own personal origin, and what had actually happened to Team Go in the early days. Then she told her their greatest secret, knowing it was likely going to be hers, too. A secret that could have destroyed her in the days when GJ was always trying in vain to contain her.

"Kim?"

"Hmmmm?"

"Are you….okay?"

"Oh. Yes. I was just considering what you said. It must be a neurological reaction to the symbiotic binding of two, distinct alien genetic codes that causes the discomfort."

"Discom….? Say what?"

"Yes, yes, that makes sense. And the glow is obviously the excess energy given off by increased cellular activity when you energize your…."

"Kimmie. Speak English."

"What? Oh, sorry. I was lost in thought. It's proof, Sheila. Dr. Olsen was right. The comet wasn't just a dead rock. It was….is a _living _organism. And you…._we_….became its hosts."

"Are you trying to tell me there's an alien inside me," Shego shuddered.

"No," Kim smiled faintly as she 'looked' her way in that weird way she had of seeming to see without seeing. "I'm saying you _are_ an alien now. We all are. Don't you see? By absorbing pieces of the original organic silicate life form, we became infused with the alien DNA. We were changed, and in essence created a new hybrid form of life. I can't wait to get back to the lab. We have to document this. We have to…."

"Kimberly. Do you really want to tell people we're aliens? That we're new life forms from another world? Do you really want to end up in a lab for the rest of your life. As the _specimen_?"

"Oh. Oh, I….see what you mean," she frowned. "Damn, these bandages itch. I really want them….."

"Wait," Shego tried to stop her as she grabbed her hands, knowing she wasn't ready to remove those bandages. Or so the doctors claimed.

"….Off," Kim said, and just that quickly, the bandages seemed to explode outward in ragged, white tatters as if something cut them into thousands of pieces even as a faint, golden glow rose around Kim's face.

"Princess, I think I'm figuring out your power."

"Yes. I believe it must be some kind of instinctive telekinesis," she murmured as she blinked against the bright sun,

"Whoa," Shego stared down into Kim's face as she still held her hands down as the redhead looked up at her from her wheelchair.

"That's better. I can see again," Kim smiled.

"Really?"

"What?"

"Your….eye," she told Kim, fixed on that left socket.

"Oh, right. It must be horrible. I'll probably have to get an eye patch like Betty's," she smiled wryly.

"Kim. You haven't opened it yet, but…..it looks like its still there."

"Really? Let me….."

Kim willed her left eye open, and Shego gasped. Kim's new eye focused on her, and Shego cringed. It was a yellowish orb, with a dark golden iris. The pupil was an even darker gold, a dark cinnamon in color rather than black. It radiated a faint glow as the sun shone on it, and Shego felt an unnerving certainty that Kim could see right through her. Right into her very secret heart of hearts.

"Shego," Kim murmured, using that name, her _true_ name, again.

"Y-Yeah?"

"Why did you lie," she asked, though Shego realized instinctively Kim already knew the answer.

"I….didn't want to….."

Kim sighed, and reached up to hug her. "It's all right, Shego," she murmured, and closed that eye that saw too much too soon.

She saw Shego's pain, and love, and sacrifice. And her emptiness, and her desire.

She saw the genuine love for her rival she didn't understand herself, and saw, too, that she lied about her own affection to spare her what she felt would only bring her grief and trouble. "I still love you, too," she murmured as she held up her arms, and Shego knelt before her, hugging her back, and cried again.

_**KP**_

"Something to report?"

"She opened _the eye_," Will said grimly as he came into Dr. Director's office with a grim expression.

"What happened," Betty asked, knowing Will wouldn't have come back so soon without reason.

"Whatever it does, it made _Shego_ bawl like a baby. The two guards escorting them back to the quarantine bay kept whimpering, and ran off the moment they were able. So far as I was able to ascertain, they saw something that terrified them. Both of them, Dr. Director, were in place to look right into Possible's eyes when they both opened."

"Did you see anything?"

"No. By the time I moved into place, she had already closed that one eye."

Betty nodded, then pulled open a drawer to take out a spare eye patch she kept ready. "I think I'll go pay our new comet-powered champion a visit."

"Dr. Director, should we….contain her somehow? I mean, if she's anywhere as powerful as the others, she could become a danger if she….."

"If she what, Will? Kim Possible has always been a hero. True, the past few years her efforts have been restricted to the scientific field. No surprise considering her family. However, I will not be repeating past mistakes by forcing her in any one direction. We don't need another _Shego_ deciding to make her own way if we push her into the wrong corner. Understand?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"Then you will not speak of this to anyone else. And I want those two men sent for complete psych evaluations, with full reports of whatever they think they experienced included. I expect to have that information on my desk before the end of the day," Betty said, holding the spare eye patch as she rose from her desk.

"Yes, ma'am," Will nodded as he stepped aside for her.

"And, Will?" "Yes, ma'am?"

"Not one word of this is to be leaked to the press. Or I'll personally geld you this time, mister. Do you understand me?"

Will swallowed hard at the knot in his throat.

A few days ago, the press was tipped to the fact that Kim Possible was not only back in Upperton, but had been involved in a nearly lethal accident following an attack at Upperton U where she was involved in 'questionable' research. Will had tipped his cousin at the paper just because he felt it would finally make that cheerleading amateur look like the idiot she was for once.

His was an undeclared rivalry that had never been quite settled in his mind. Unfortunately, Betty knew of it, and somehow she had learned he had tipped off the media that was hunting Kim in every hospital and clinic in the area since word of her injuries were made public. Betty had already fielded several calls from Wade who had spotted the story, and was probably already hacking GJ med files on his friend as they spoke. The only reason they had not yet heard from the media, or even the Possibles was due to the fact you couldn't just pick up a phone and call Global Justice.

"We'll discuss your leaking of classified information later," the woman drawled, and left him standing there like a scolded five year old.

"Damn woman," he growled impotently, and he wasn't talking about his superior, whom he viewed as a heroine that far surpassed that supercilious redhead.

_**KP**_

"Feeling better, I'm told," Betty said as she entered the room where Shego watched the nurses settle Kim back in bed after her trip up to the roof of the secret headquarters for fresh air.

"I wouldn't know. Your pet lab jockeys won't tell me anything," the woman scowled. "They even refused to let me see my own charts even though my eyes are now obviously open," the redhead grumbled, regaining her willfulness already from the sound of it, and looking much healthier in spite of the still slightly raw gashes across the left side of her face.

"I brought you a present," she told Kim, not commenting on her complaint.

Kim looked at the eye patch Betty dropped in her lap, and arched a sardonic brow. "Trying to push a fashion statement, Dr. Director?"

"Trying to help you keep from losing control, or panicking people, Miss Possible," she stated bluntly, the only way she knew of addressing issues.

"_Doctor_ Possible," Kim stated just as forcefully, her expression eloquent.

"All right. My mistake. _Doctor_. I'll have James and Carl release your data so you can review it yourself. You might have some ideas to contribute at this point that we haven't considered."

Kim's green right eye narrowed as her left lid fluttered, and for a moment, Betty's own good eye detected a faint nimbus around Kim's pale features for a few seconds. Emotional stimuli, she guessed, considering Shego's own emotional state when she had 'lost control' of her own power at times over the years. So, she was just like the other comet-affected.

"Thank you," Kim nodded, and eyed the patch. Then with a faint shrug, she picked up and put the patch on over her left eye, and looked up at Shego with a faint smile.

"How do I look, Sheila?"

The reformed villain and ex-heroine smirked. "Like a one-eyed Pumpkin," she drawled in her familiar sardonic drawl.

"I can always count on you to be honest," Kim actually laughed.

Betty marveled at that. Just twenty-two hours ago she had still been crying out in pain, and now she was laughing. She didn't even sound hoarse.

"Always, Cyclops," Sheila drawled playfully.

"Oh, you're going to pay for that one. So…? When do I get some real food in here? I'm starving," she told Betty expectantly.

"I'll see what I can do," Betty assured her as Shego snipped, "Yeah, I've heard that one before."

"Consider that _she _is a guest whom we owe a great deal to, _Sheila_. While you were always here as a, shall we say, a ward of the state?"

Shego rolled her eyes, clearly not caring. Still, she was surprised the woman had switched her to civilian name now.

"So, when am I getting out of here," Kim asked Betty pointedly after a little more small talk.

Betty pointedly said nothing again.

"Yes?"

She looked down at Kim, and told her, "Kimberly, you have to realize that this is a unique situation, and…."

"She's welcoming you to their laboratories," Shego told her blandly.

"You are not helping, Miss Go. Perhaps you'd like to leave now? While we appreciate your aid in this matter…."

"See? I can't, and won't give them anything, and they know it. So I'm out of here. You, they figure to use the old, 'Gee, don't you want to help us out one more time' angle? That's what I'm guessing. That about right," Shego asked Betty curtly.

Betty glared at her, and she was good at it even with only one eye. _Sheila_ was still Shego at heart, and met her glare with a snide smirk of her own that would not be denied.

"How is Dr. Olsen," Kim suddenly asked pointedly.

"He was out of the lab at the time of the attack, and wasn't harmed," Betty told her, grateful for the excuse to break the unofficial staring contest between them, but she had the unnerving sensation Kim knew that when she spoke up.

"Good. We need to get back to work. I've some ideas based on what I was finding before I was interrupted, and….."

"Kim, the samples were destroyed in the attack. Or absorbed by you. We don't have any left," Betty told her honestly.

"Absorbed?"

"Initially, one of the larger fragments apparently entered your eye socket when you fell. Later analysis of the security footage showed a small cluster of the remaining fragments beneath you as you fell. When we found you, there were none there. Not one."

Kim frowned. "Complete….absorption? By osmotic means? Or was it….."

"No clue," Betty told her, not really a scientist though she had dozens at her disposal.

"I need to see the footage. With a UV scan filter, and a micro….."

"Hold on, Dr. Possible. You're still a patient, and I can't risk you….."

Kim held up a hand.

To her.

Dr. Betty Director. Head of Global Justice.

She held up a small, clawed hand, and actually stopped her very reasonable protest.

"I give you two days," Kim told her firmly, not sounding like a recovering invalid just then. "I expect to have a clean bill of health from your quacks, and a medical release by then. I also expect to see my complete medical charts, and have unrestricted access to the materials I need. This is still our project, and Dr. Olsen and I have already made a lot of headway. Enough that I think I can fill in any blanks with a field trip."

"_Field trip_," both women said as the nurses left, both secretly amused at how their tough leader was being shut down by their patient who was comatose until only a few days ago, and crippled by pain after that.

"Need to know," she smiled secretively at both women. "I might not even require…. Never mind. Doctors. Charts. Film review. And _food_," she added as she ticked off her requests on her right hand.

"Still bossy, aren't you, Princess," Sheila grinned.

Kim eyed her, and simply smiled. "I know what I need, and where I'm going, _Sheila_. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to rest while I wait for Dr. Director to arrange my requests," she said as she lay back on her pillows and closed her eye.

"And my food," she added as she lay back.

Betty only sighed, and walked out to pass on the _requests_. For now, playing along was her best tactic she realized, and while she did want to know what Kim was capable of, and how they might actually use it to their advantage, she didn't want to do anything foolish. As she told Will, the last thing she wanted to do was create another Shego.

_To Be Continued…… _


	3. Chapter 3

I do not own Kim Possible, or any other Disney character. I'm just borrowing them for my own view of alternative tales.

_**Kim Possible: Aftereffects**_

_**By LJ58**_

**Part 3:**

Betty drummed her fingers.

This was not going well.

Physically. _Medically_, they had no reason to continue to hold Possible in the iso-clinic.

Practically, something was scaring the hell out of her people every time one of them even glimpsed that weird eye of hers when it opened. Betty wasn't ashamed to admit she was both curious, and more than a little leery of it. Even Will avoided Kimberly now when the patch came up. She was also concerned with just what power went with the weird yellow glow, and why it had melded so easily with Shego that day despite the apparent raw energy that was so far off their scales she knew it had to be lethal.

Kim had been surprisingly complacent when they finally sent 'Sheila Go' off, reminding the reformed felon that she did have legitimate business concerns she should be seeing to by then. The two had been friendly enough despite their own pasts, and Shego and Kim had spent the past few days going over things in the GJ lab together as much as they spent sunning themselves on the upper deck, apparently just idly chatting.

Betty couldn't find out what the redheaded scientist was up to, as Shego, on her way out, declined to be fully debriefed. That is, Betty asked her questions, and Shego typically ignored them.

Bitch.

She had gotten worse than smug since that pardon.

It wasn't like she had helped Stoppable _or_ Lipski actually save the world. She was a sidekick. A lackey. From what she had seen and heard, she'd gotten her green butt kicked all over the place before Stoppable had actually gotten serious.

Shego, and Kimberly.

Both slapped down like helpless children. It was almost comedic that in the end the madman and the buffoon had colluded to save their planet. Still, Shego was gone now. Off to her equally ironic profession, as she refused to rejoin her brothers' team despite multiple offers over the years since she had apparently gone straight.

Whatever Possible found on the brief footage shown her, she only hummed over, and spent hours staring at the same frames that she ran through various filters and lenses, and didn't say a word. She even brought in her friend Wade again, and after a little idle chat catching up on her new Kimmunicator the young genius had sent her without hesitation, Betty realized the young man had likely known where she was all along.

Figures.

Wade also still did whatever she asked, even though Kimberly asked for it in scientific lingo even GJ's top agent couldn't quite decipher, the young genius acquiesced without a moment's pause. He even delivered Kim's own message, supposedly, to alert her parents she was fine, and would be in touch soon. A little slip her agents were supposed to be looking out for in the com-signal that was supposed to be a delayed broadcast until Wade got through with it, but Kim had slipped that request in between asking him about something to do with genomes, and wanting astronomical charts for the past thirty years. She even suggested her father's space center as a source for said charts, knowing her father had the best star charts on the planet.

Betty didn't know why her requests and interests seemed so random, or what she was up to now, but she couldn't dismiss that this Possible was also a genius, like all her family, and that she was obviously onto something. Something that couldn't help but concern her if someone like Kimberly was so focused on it she refused to even take time out to eat, still ordering all her meals be brought to her. The only breaks she took was when she went up to the roof to go up to sun herself every few days, and even then, she took her laptop and Kimmunicator with her, and spent the time as busy as ever. All without saying one word to disclose her thoughts to anyone but Wade.

Which left Betty still drumming her fingers, trying to decide what to do with and about the increasingly uncooperative woman when Will abruptly burst in yet again.

"Dr. Director, you're going to have to see this one yourself."

"What is it now," she demanded of him, still sore at his leaking Kim's 'accident' to the press in the first place.

By now, there was also enough amateur footage uncovered by the press to show the university's bright new star had also dropped Professor Dementor and his robots into the police's hands without breaking a sweat. She obviously still had her moves. The question was, what else did she have after her life-altering _incident_?

"Trust me, ma'am," Will told her grimly. "You're going to want to see this."

Betty followed him, expecting Kim was up to something that had set off her aide again. Admittedly, he was her top field agent, but he tended to be a bit priggish, and somewhat of a diva at times. Still, he was more than capable, and she frowned as she reached the medical lab. She had to actually stop to stare at the maintenance crew carefully cutting the heavy bed frame away from Dr. Heinrich's pale body as the man was held pinned to the wall by the hospital bed's metal legs literally impaling the wall in such a manner that the frame pressed him almost flat against the hard, concrete wall. Just a few inches more, and he could have been seriously injured.

Worse, the pale, pudgy man was utterly naked. Kimberly, naturally, was nowhere to be seen.

Betty groaned.

"I think we know what she can do now," Will told her grimly as they both stared at the unlikely scene.

"What happened," she demanded of Johan Heinrich, her top agency geneticist as she stormed into the room, staying out of the way of the men still carefully cutting the bed frame away from him with welding torches.

"She….She refused to give blood and tissue samples this morning," the doctor said, sweating heavily as he eyed the torch burning so near his bare flesh. "I tried to tell her this was necessary, ja? Then…. She just waved, and my clothes….. Ach! Hot," he hissed before adding in the same breath, "They are off. Again, the wave, and then I am flying against this wall, and the bed….. I thought I was going to die," he moaned as one of the bed's legs clattered to the floor after the final cut was made on it, and a small, pale foot dangled free. Just three to go.

"Did she show her eye?"

"No, no," the man told Betty as he shook his head as his left arm was finally freed as they pulled part of the frame back manually after freeing it from the upper leg. "But she glowed like amber, ja? Very bright. Very sudden. And then I am naked, and…..and this."

"How long ago….?"

"Three hours," Will reported. "We only just found him after the regular check in. And the south exit has already logged Dr. Heinrich out. The guards there swear only _he_ went past them."

"And the cameras?"

"All blank, ma'am," Will reported, efficient as ever as he held out the data in file form for her to review. "In fact, every camera that was even remotely in her area failed at the very moment she was passing them," Will told her.

"Field trip, indeed," Betty murmured. "All right, I want a Delta scramble on this now. I want all teams sent with full air support to find, and monitor her. And I am stressing _monitor_, Will. No, and I mean absolutely _no_ direct contact."

"But…..?"

"When she's found, continue monitoring until I decide otherwise," she cut Will off. "I suspect she's going to head home first, and then likely back to the university."

"Or vice versa," Will suggested with dark scowl. "I believe her car was left there," he pointed out. "We couldn't tow it. The damn thing has security even we couldn't circumvent."

"I see. So…… Three hours? She's probably been there and gone. Focus on Middleton, but don't blind yourself by focusing on one area alone. We cannot risk losing her. We have to know the extent of her power, and if she manifests a credible threat if she were to lose control of whatever she…..possesses."

"Telekinesis, ja," the scientist told her as only one arm was left pinned by then, and the maintenance men had to support him as they cut it free now. "She only gestures, or looks, and things happen. Ja, ja. Her mind. Her _mind_ is the seat of her power."

"You're saying her powers are all mental," Betty asked.

"Ja! It is quite interesting. The others touched by the comet, they are physically empowered. Or energetically, as with the angry woman. But Dr. Possible, she is all _mind_."

"Let's not forget nine traumatized agents who still can't explain why a brief glimpse into her new eye scared the hell out of them," Will suggested.

"You have your orders," Betty told Will.

"Yes, Dr. Director. I'll contact you the moment we have any credible leads."

"And, Will."

"Yes, ma'am," he turned just as he was about to leave.

"Don't forget. This is Kim Possible. She has saved the world more times than I can count, and managed to slip off the grid for almost five years without leaving a trace of herself behind before she finally resurfaced. I don't think she's that rusty. Not from what I saw of that footage in her fight with Dementor. Understood?"

"Understood, ma'am."

"You," Betty turned to one of the nurses trying not to snigger at the poor man still pinned to the wall by his right arm was only then slipping free to land in a heap at just that moment. "Go get the doctor some clothes. Now."

_**KP**_

Shego muttered as she walked to the door of her house, and opened it, expecting anyone but the smiling redhead with one eye covered in a patch smirking up at her.

"Hi, Shego. Can I get a ride?"

"A ride?" she drawled in disbelief.

"Well, it's kind of embarrassing, but…..I lost my keys, so I am going to need you to carry me to my car, and…..open the door for me," Kim grinned at her as she stood in the door. "So, I guess, it's kind of a job, too."

Shego sighed. "Do I want to know why are you wearing a GJ uniform two sizes too big….? Never mind. I can guess. Come in, Kimmie," she said, and gestured to the small house she called home that set to one side of her storefront business that managed to pay the bills for the most part. Some people seemed to like the notoriety of being able to claim Shego had set up their security systems, or fixed their locks for them.

"I think I have some things that might be closer to fitting you than that tacky thing," Shego told her as she led her down the hall, to a bedroom.

"Thanks, Shego, I really appreciate it."

"I suppose you'd like to freshen up, too? You look like you've been slumming," she grimaced at her wild, red mane, and dirt-streaked features.

"I had to duck a few tails getting here," she admitted. "But, please and thank you," she beamed a familiar smile, and went eagerly into the bathroom when Shego gestured.

"Use anything you like, _except_ my toothbrush," she growled. "I'll go find you some clothes that won't make you look like a refuge from a wanted poster."

"Thanks, Shego."

"I quit using that name."

"I know."

"I'm Sheila now."

"I know," she said.

"Will you quit saying…."

The bathroom door closed in her face at that moment..

"Damn, she's _still_ annoying," Shego muttered.

"I know," she heard in a singsong voice behind the door just before the shower started.

Shego growled, and then couldn't help but smile. Oddly enough, having Kim back, and in such fine spirits just felt right. She tried not to think of that, but it was hard. Almost as hard as trying not to think of that naked redhead in her shower.

"Doy!" she moaned, and headed for the bedroom to find the woman something to wear as she forced herself not to think too much of that particular image.

_**KP**_

"There's my car," Kim pointed to the bright pink Sloth as most still called it.

"You're kidding," Shego shuddered.

"No. I've upgraded it a few times myself since….the old days, but it still does what I need, and I like it. Besides, it was a gift from my dad," she smiled as Shego pulled her work van up beside the car that was one of the few in the lot still partially cordoned off as work crews labored to clean the rubble away from the nearby building they were still working on repairing.

It was a slow process since men from the CDC and other alphabet agencies had likely still been crawling all over the area, Kim guessed.

"But _pink_?"

"You think it's too cute," Kim asked her seriously as they climbed out of the van.

"I think it's too _pink_," Shego muttered, glaring at the sleek, redesigned car that was still obviously part of an older, less than classic heap most teenagers wouldn't have been caught dead driving even if it was their only option.

"Right. I forgot, you prefer green," Kim remarked, looking down at the borrowed light green top, and darker green slacks she herself now wore as Shego kept to her favored colors in her wardrobe.

"What's wrong with….? Never mind. This thing doesn't have anything that's going to zap me, or stuff like that," Shego asked knowingly as she stopped just before she got too close to the car.

"Oh, right. My car alarm. Darn. I forgot about that."

Shego rolled her eyes.

"Let me try something else."

She was about to ask what, when Kim just stared hard, then pointed at her door, and something clicked before the door popped open on its own.

"Did you _know_ you could do that," Shego asked sourly as she glared at the redhead, not even going to pretend she was impressed with that kind of trick.

"I kind of guessed," she admitted sheepishly.

"Then why come all the way out to my place, and hire….?"

"You were closer than the university. And I knew it'd be easier getting here if I was with company, instead of being a woman alone," Kim shrugged as she climbed into the car. Reaching overhead, and dropping the visor as she settled into the seat, and caught a spare set of keys.

"Doy. You know someone could have…. Never mind. Let's call it fifty for the ride, and the service," she growled, "And call it even."

"I really appreciate your help, Shego," she said, pulling out a wallet under the seat, and fishing out a bill for her to take.

"Sure, Kimmie," she sighed. "So, what are you going to do now? I mean, if you ran off from Betty's happy little hotel, I doubt even your friendship is going to keep Cyclops…. Ahem, _Bets_ off your backside," she amended when she glanced down at Kim's own eye patch.

"I don't think she's going to do anything as long as I don't show myself to be a problem. Still, I've my own theories about what's going on, and I need to explore them. First, I have to go see the fam, but I'll be back in the area in a few days. Would you like to help me?"

"Help you what?"

"Well, for one, I want to reexamine the actual site where the comet originally exploded."

"What is it with you and that rock?" Shego demanded.

"That's just it, Shego. I don't think it was just a rock. I think it might have been a completely unique life-form of some kind."

Shego dropped her jaw for a moment, and just stared at her. "Do you….hear voices," the green-skinned woman finally asked her.

"You, too?"

"Not…. Not in a long time, but…..once. When I first started turning green. I thought I was going nuts."

"No. If I'm right, I think you might have been in telepathic contact with the symbiote, as I'm calling it for the time being."

"Isn't that like….a parasite," she grimaced, imaging all kinds of nasty implications.

"Not specifically. We can talk more later. If the other _Cyclops_ shows, just tell her you gave me a lift, and that was it. And, Shego," she said, thumbing a switch as she started the car. "What do you think?"

Shego's jaw dropped again as the car turned from bright pink to a dark green the same shade that once colored her old catsuit.

"Adaptive camo-paint. Spankin', isn't it?"

Shego laughed.

It had been a long time since she really laughed. Heading back for her van, she waved Kim off, saying, "You know where to find me, Princess."

"Always, Shego," she waved back before closing her door, and driving away.

Shego smiled, and realized that she was still Shego. She had not even minded the one-eyed brat calling her that all morning. Ever since that day they had embraced, and she felt that weird warmth from Kim's glow as she tried to calm her, Shego had felt….connected. Moreso than she had ever felt with anyone else in her life. Even with her dimwitted brothers, or goofy ex-employer.

It was a good feeling. A very good feeling.

_**KP**_

"This is Agent Waters. We have her heading south toward Lowerton on the main highway."

"You might not believe it, control, but that damn car of hers has actually changed colors three different times now," someone blurted out.

"I'd believe it," Betty grumbled, listening to the radio chatter from her desk as she studied the reports on what little they had on Kim's condition. None of which made sense, and certainly didn't explain how she could move things with her mind, or cause trained, hardcore agents to end up reduced to whimpering children with a glance at her new eye.

"Coming up on an overpass. She's still headed due south….. Wait. Wait," the agent in the VTOL called again, and Betty felt her ulcer start to churn.

"She's disappeared. Traffic flow is constant, but there's no car of any color matching hers coming out with it. Sweep back and check under the….."

"No, no, no," Will swore, breaking in on the channel himself now. "You morons are running line-of-sight search, and she played you. Switch to IFR now. Everyone. Go IFR, and try to find any extraneous heat source in the area."

"Yes, sir," Waters barked. "Going IFR now, and sweeping the traffic flow."

"Too late," Betty murmured as she listened to the chatter. "But we know where she's going," she reminded herself as she studied the topographical maps before her.

"Agent Du," she called as she reached for her own transmitter to cut in. "Break off direct pursuit, and move to secondary targets. Do you copy?"

"Understood, Dr. Director," he replied. "GJ-V. You have the Middleton Mall. GJ-II and IX, you will sweep the primary roads in and out of town. I'm taking the Possible residence myself," he called back.

Betty leaned back in her chair and sighed.

"Damn, Kimberly. You're still good," she murmured in grudging admiration. Even she hadn't seen her going to Shego for help first. She should have anticipated that one. Yet she hadn't. It was as if the thought just wouldn't come. It seemed too…..improbable. Yet that was just what the young scientist had done.

That left her wondering if any of them were capable of guessing what Kimberly was up to now. After all, she had kept the world guessing for five years, and even Betty had not realized Olsen hired her when a research subdivision of their special labs employed him to test his radical new theories on those cometary fragments after it seemed Team Go was genuinely about to retire.

"What are you up to, Kimberly," she murmured, trying to put together her recent eclectic requests with an actual conclusion or theory. But capable as she herself was, Betty Director was not a scientist. Nor a genius. She wasn't even in the same league as someone like Kimberly. It was another reason she tried to hire the best. So GJ wouldn't be caught unawares by people they couldn't match otherwise. She had always harbored certain expectations and hopes in regard to Kim Possible, but had the woman changed too much?

Betty considered all that had happened since finding the woman in that ruined lab in Shego's arms.

She was still left without a clue.

_**KP**_

"Sensei," Ron bowed. "I would like to go home. To let my parents know I am wed," he said, smiling over at Yori. "I should let them know I am both healthy, and well. And it will be good to see Hana again," he added.

"Of course. Still, Yori," the old master addressed her as the pair stood before him. "There is something you must prepare for before you reach Stoppable-San's parents."

"What, Sensei," she asked, wondering if there was another mission she required finishing, or a skill that yet needed mastering.

"There is the very strong possibility," the old man smiled indulgently, "That Stoppable-San's family will have you wed again in their faith. I believe you should do so to ease their fears, and show them you are not a usurper, but a dutiful daughter."

"Of course, Master Sensei," she bowed to him after smiling at her husband. "It would be my honor, and my pleasure to wed my husband as many times as necessary to ensure his happiness."

The old man chuckled, and turned back to his tea, and the scroll he was penning. "I shall see you when you return. Farewell, my children, and may the fates bless you in all you do."

They were halfway down the mountain before Yori realized her grandfather had been saying more than goodbye. "Ron-San," she said quietly as she looked back at the hidden school that had been her life for so long. "I believe that Sensei….."

"I know. He is dying, Yori. He will probably pass away long before we return."

"Then we should…."

"He wished you to make this trip for a reason," he told her, stopping her from turning back. "We should honor his wishes, and celebrate his life, rather than mourn his coming death."

"You are right, of course. You have grown wise, Stoppable-Sensei," she smiled teasingly as she turned back into his arms as they stood together not far from the gates of Yamanouchi.

"I could not have made it without you, Yori. You and Sensei became my second family when I arrived here."

She smiled at him. "It will be good to see America again. I confess, I have often longed for your American-style food again at times when all we have is rice on the menu."

Ron nodded, wishing Rufus could be with him, but his little friend had finally passed on a year ago. Mole rats just did not live that long. Not even genetically enhanced, mystical monkey-powered mole rats. Still, he had three of Rufus' offspring living at Yamanouchi now. A fourth had been sent home to Hana as a gift for her seventh birthday. He was looking forward to seeing his little sister again as much as he was his parents.

In time, he knew, Hana would return to Yamanouchi herself, and train to refine the power that lay within her young body. It was his duty, as monkey-master, and Yamanouchi's next sensei, to ensure the Han grew to become a force for good in this world. There were already far too many evil forces.

He was just glad Monkey Fist was finally gone, and that was one threat he was happy to be rid of for good, or so he hoped. He was sure that KP was still out there fighting, too. He just couldn't imagine her not doing all she could to help those around her. Two days later, they finally reached the airport, and he could not believe the magazine article that featured a retrospective of Team Possible, long silent for over five years.

The news of Kim's recent lab accident, and possible injuries had yet to spread past America's shores as yet.

"You had your own path to follow, Ron," Yori told him as he stared incredulously at the same article and dated pictures for most of the flight. "I am sure Kimberly-San has also found her own way, too. After all, change is part of life."

"I know, Yori. I know. But I can't help feeling….uneasy about all this. As if, well, as if something….ominous is coming."

Yori stared at her husband in alarm. "Is it Ron Stoppable, or the monkey-master that senses this threat?"

"I'm afraid it's both, Yori," he told her. "I think Sensei knew it, too. Something's wrong. Very, very wrong. And I have the feeling we're heading right for it."

Yori said nothing at first as she reached to take his nearest hand, holding it tightly in her own.

"Whatever we face, Ron. It will be my honor to stand beside you."

"I know, sweetheart," he smiled at her, lifting her small, but deadly hand to his lips to gently kiss it before he lowered it. "And there's no one I'd rather have at my side."

"No one," she teased him knowingly.

"No one," he told her firmly, lifting her hand to kiss it again.

She smiled and giggled, feeling very much like an ordinary woman in love just then, and not a skilled assassin trained since birth to uphold the honor and duties of her ancient clan. She just hoped they survived whatever Ron sensed was coming, and had a chance to live their own lives as man and wife. It was a dream she had long harbored, and she could not imagine anything getting in the way of that dream.

Or anyone.

_To Be Continued……………_


	4. Chapter 4

**I do not own Kim Possible, or any other Disney character. I'm just borrowing them for my own view of alternative tales.**

_**Kim Possible: Aftereffects**_

_**By LJ58**_

**Part 4:**

"Kimmie-cub," her father looked up from his Sunday paper to gape at her as she walked into the house without warning. "You…. Your eye," he gasped, staring at her face as he realized she was wearing an eye patch now.

"I'm fine, dad," she smiled. "It looks worse than it is," she assured him, leaning over to kiss him on the cheek.

"You don't look fine," James growled as he actually put his paper down to stare at her scarred face. "And, as I recall, I thought you had given up your hero days."

"I have, dad," she smiled, and walked toward the kitchen. "This was from a lab accident."

"A lab accident," he sputtered as she kept going, making him rise to follow her. "In my day lab accidents didn't put out your eye. They might do funny things to your skin, or disintegrate your clothes, but……!"

"Kimberly," Ann Possible turned to smile at her. "I thought I heard you come in," she said, setting a steaming casserole on the center of the table. "You're just in time for supper."

"That doesn't look like meatloaf," the other Dr. Possible grumbled as he came into the kitchen behind his daughter.

"Now, dear, you know Dr. Banchek said you had to cut back on meat. So I'm trying a new soy recipe."

"Well, phooey on soy. I'll take my meat right from the cow, thank you."

"Dad, mom. I need to talk to you both," she told them before her father could launch into another diatribe about why meat was necessary as a dietary supplement. For a man who had suffered a cardiac scare a few months ago, he didn't seem to worry about his diet half as much as his family felt he should.

"Of course, Kim," Ann told her. "The boys will be in soon, though. Do you want to wait until after supper?"

She sighed. "We might as well. This is going to be…..complicated."

"Does it involve boys," James asked somberly as he took his seat, and Kim wasn't sure what his hard glare was reserved for. The soy-loaf, or the idea she might have met a 'boy.' Because even at just over twenty-four years of age, her father felt she was still too young to date. Apparently, Ron had never counted in his eyes.

"No, dad," she sighed, winking her mother's way. "Actually, I need to see if you could get your astronomer friend…."

"You mean Dr. Chen? Or Professor Ramesh?"

Kim sat down in her usual place when visiting, and considered. "Whichever one can get me access to a telescope array as soon as possible. I need to check some things."

"Sounds like you're working on something serious, sweetheart. Something I should know about?"

Kim stared at her father, and nodded. "If I'm right, dad. We're due to be invaded again. Very soon."

"Well," Ann said after a long pause, "I'm not sure how I can help with something like that, dear."

"Actually, mom. I need you to do something for me that's a little more….personal."

"Personal," she asked.

"Yes. I need you to check out my brain."

"Your brain?"

"Well, I didn't quite trust Betty's people. They all have their own agendas going on over there at the moment. So I thought you could slip me in down at the hospital's neuro-wing, and give me a complete check-over."

"So…..? What would I looking for," Ann asked, frowning at her daughter who seemed quite healthy in spite of the claw marks around her covered eye.

Kim considered her response, then pointed at the table as she simply stated, "How about a reason I can do this," she said, and the pitcher of tea suddenly Ann had just set down on the table rose of its own accord, and began to fill Kim's glass before it moved around the table to fill every glass in turn before settling back onto the table.

"Whoa," James Possible just murmured and shook his head. "I know anything is possible for a Possible, but….."

Ann only stared.

"That….was you," Ann Possible finally asked. "Has Wade scanned you," she asked curiously.

"Yes, that was me. And Wade did scan me from the start, but I need more detailed data than even he can give me. Plus, I need more verification before I can be certain of some of my own conclusions. And….there is more."

"How much more?"

She glanced at her father, and smiled wanly. "I'd rather not say until mom can run a full scan of my brain, and see what's actually going on. Meanwhile, I really need that telescope," she told him.

"Right. Looking for more aliens. Okay. Bob is supposed to be checking out the Hubble II's new control systems tomorrow night. All highly classified, and very hush-hush, of course. I think I can slip you into the space center tomorrow night, though, and we can see if he won't give you a little time on the side. How about that?"

"That'd be loads better than a ground-based array," she beamed. "Thanks, dad. You're the best."

James blushed even as a door slammed, and two young teens bounded into the room, and one told the other. "Told you she would make it. You owe me ten bucks."

"Well, she was injured, so you owe _me_ twenty."

"You were betting over me," Kim gasped at the pair.

"We can't help it," Tim protested. "You're the only thing really interesting and random in our lives lately."

"Says the boys that put their principal's car in orbit last week," their mother scowled.

Kim gaped.

"That's not our fault. He parked right on top our experimental anti-gravity booster," Jim protested.

"Maybe it's a good thing you quit chasing villains, Kimberly," Ann sighed. "I get the feeling we're watching two grow up now."

"Mom," two voices protested in stereo.

After which Tim drawled, "As if she could ever catch _us_ anyway."

Kim only smirked.

_**KP**_

"She's at her parent's home," Will reported from his post. "So far, she's not doing anything."

"Can you ascertain her intentions?"

"Negative. Some kind of scrambling field is keeping our remote monitors from doing more than picking up their body heat. We cannot scan, or use audio detection at this distance."

"The twins," Betty sighed knowingly. "In ways, they're more dangerous than Lipski every tried to be at his best."

"Orders?"

"Continue to monitor her activity from a distance, and keep me informed. Do not do anything unless it is first cleared with me."

"Understood," Will grumbled, his voice audibly discontent.

"That's for your own safety as much as anything else, Agent Du. Recall, she has uncharted, and unknown powers now. Let's not do anything to set her off. Remember, she is still an ally unless proven otherwise."

"Understood," he echoed, and closed the frequency to stare at the IFR images on his console in the masked VTOL parked not far from the Possible house.

"Looks like just another ordinary family at home," one of the agents in the parked, camouflaged aircraft with him commented as they saw the images that showed a family at a table from the location and postures of the heat sources.

"Trust me, Dankirk. There is nothing remotely ordinary about anyone in that house. The entire family is…..unique. Especially the twins."

"But….they're kids."

"Kids that are probably as smart as that annoying hacker Wade."

The agent blinked. "That smart?"

"Some think they might be smarter."

"Damn," the agent frowned, knowing that Wade reportedly had earned three doctorates before he was even ten. "Then….what are they doing in a regular school?"

"Tormenting the faculty according to the reports I've examined," he huffed, not bothering to tell the man the Possibles believed in proper socialization. All part of their 'fit in and be friendly' act he supposed. He had long wondered about the oddball family of geniuses. Anyone that smart had to be hiding something. Someday, he would find out what, and then they, and especially Kim Possible, would be going down for good.

And he would be the only hero anyone remembered.

Lucky amateur: Zero. Will Du: All the marbles.

_**KP**_

"I really appreciate this, mom," Kim said as she slowly moved up into the VR MRI that would take a virtual imaging of her brain, body, as well as giving her an overview of her nervous system to see what was going on. She wore only a hospital gown, and her eye patch, not wanting to accidentally open that orb here since she had noticed that so far only Shego seemed relatively untouched by whatever it was doing when it opened.

She did know when it opened she could 'see' things with startling clarity. Not just minds, but the world itself, and all that was happening around her. It was like looking out at a reality behind the reality she had long perceived and realizing it was two different things. It was overwhelming unless she focused on precise people or objects when that happened.

"No big, sweetie. I'd have done it anyway if you needed help. You know that. Now, be very still, and we'll have you out of there, and figured out in no time."

"I hope so," she said quietly, and frowned at the whispering she heard just beyond the hum of the machine she was inside. Only it was the symbiotic murmur she had learned to recognize lately. It was something else. Something…..familiar. It sounded like…..

"What was that, mom?"

"Nothing, dear. Just starting the scans now," her mother's voice sounded louder. Then the whispering returned, and she clearly heard her mother exclaim, "What is that? Is it inside her brain?"

"My God," Kim heard the other doctor say. "That cannot be right. It's…. It's impossible!"

"Mom? Something wrong?"

"No, dear," her mother denied, though she could hear she was obviously upset.

Then it struck her.

She heard her mother speak loudly. Normally. Those other voices came as part of the whispers she had been increasingly hearing of late.

"Mom," she called out.

"Yes…..Kimmie?" "I need to run a test here, mom. For myself. Okay?"

"What kind of test," she called back over the hum of the machine that seemed to be speeding up.

"I want you think of a number. Any number. Just don't say it. Just think it. 'Kay?"

"Kimberly…..?"

"Number, mom. Just think of it."

"All right. But why…..?"

"Your number is one-thousand, nine-hundred, and seventy-three," Kim cut her off. "Or was that a year?"

"It was…..a year," Ann choked. "Kim! Are you reading my mind!"

"Try again, mom. Think of anything," she called out to her. "Anything at all. Something you would never ordinarily say to me."

"Well, since I try to be honest and open, I can't really think of anything," came the whisper voice.

"C'mon, mom," Kim told her, belatedly realizing that whisper was not an audible statement. "You're so not that completely open."

In the control booth, Ann's jaw dropped as she stared at her daughter.

"Kimmie…..? Did you just…..? Are you okay?"

"I think so. But my….mutation seems to be continuing. Or maybe I am just now realizing what I can do. I don't know."

"We have to report this, Ann," the other doctor exclaimed earnestly as he continued to eye the MRI scans.

"To whom," Ann said uneasily, not liking the gleam in her associate's eyes.

"GJ already knows, mom. That's why they have Will Du parked in our neighborhood watching me."

"GJ," the man at Ann's side frowned. "Why would Global Justice…..?"

"You about done yet, mom. This thing is really giving me a headache."

"A few more minutes," Ann called back.

"Okay. Can you download the results for me. I'd like to correlate them with my own studies and Wade's scans, and see if I can't extrapolate what is going on, and what might yet develop based on…..

"Dr. Elliot," Kim blurted out in almost the same breath. "I'm not going to be your new project in psionic studies, so forget about that right now," she told him. "If I see one word of this in print without my direct and express permission, and we'll find out how well you can defend yourself. From me."

The balding man looked uneasily from mother to daughter, and Ann glared at the flash drive he had been trying to palm as the MRI began to power down.

"I'll take that," she told him, and the man didn't even argue. "And, Elliot? You breathe a word of this and Kim _might_ hurt you. But I will definitely destroy you," she told him so coolly that the man wanted to whimper.

"Way to go, mom," Kim sniggered, having 'heard' everything.

"Okay, Kimmie," she called as she finished switching off the machine as Elliot fled. "We're done. And Dr. Elliot already downloaded everything for you. Wasn't that nice of him," the older redhead smiled from the control booth.

"Spankin', mom," she agreed as she sat up, and rubbed her temple. That machine really had her head hammering for a moment there. "Now, I'd better get going if I'm going to meet Dad, and his friend at the Space Center."

"It's still pretty early, dear. I'm sure you have plenty of time…." "I have a stop to make first, mom. Wade's about to call, and….."

Across the room, where her own clothes lay, the Kimmunicator chirped as both women looked toward the device usually worn on her wrist now.

"How did you…..?"

"So not the drama, mom. It's just an application of probability and logic that is set to random quantum……"

"I'm a brain surgeon, dear. Not a physicist," Ann reminded her as she came out of the booth to hand her the flash drive.

"Sorry, mom," she grinned, scooping up the Kimmunicator, and switching it on as Wade's face appeared even as she took the flash drive in her other hand.

"Go, Wade."

"Thought you'd like a heads-up, KP. I don't know what's going on, because they've shielded their new command frequencies. But four strike teams are headed for Go City, and they look to be heavily armed."

"Is Shego…..?"

"Still at her shop, and still doing nothing out of the ordinary."

"Then why…..?"

"I don't know yet, Kim," Wade admitted. "I haven't cracked their new frequencies. Yet."

"I see," she murmured. "Well, let me know if anything serious pops up. I really need to get to the Space Center right now, though."

"You might want to stop by the house first," he told her. "I dropped off a package for you."

Kim smiled, acquiescing, and then switching off the device.

"See. Told you I had to make a stop first."

Ann only stared after her as she quickly got dressed before heading out of the hospital with a casual wave. "Be careful, Kimmie," she finally managed, wondering if she 'heard' her.

_**KP**_

"I'm sorry Bob wasn't here to help out," Dr. Possible told his daughter as they realigned the orbiting Hubble II to the coordinates she had calculated after several days of studying the data she had come up with.

"No big, dad. At least he left his operating codes and passwords for us to 'accidentally' discover. Tell him I owe him a ferociously big favor for this one," she said, and began to scan the section of the sky where a multi-colored comet had originated according to all the telemetry and reports she had accumulated and studied.

"Shift to Gamma filters," she suggested.

"Now, Doppler shift down the spectrum," she added as her own fingers continued to rotate and focus the view of the star fields before them.

"How about…."

"Wait. Back up one degree. There. What…..?"

"My God," James stared. "What is that?"

Kim stared at the massive, honeycombed rock as something buzzed violently in her mind. "Doomsday," she murmured, and leapt up from her chair, and ran for the exit.

"Call everyone you can think of to help, dad. That thing is going to land here in sixteen hours."

"But…..it's too far……"

"It's not a rock, dad," she paused in the door to tell him. "It's a spacecraft. And it's not coming to conquer us. It's here to wipe us out."

Dr. Possible stood staring at the monitor for all of three seconds after his daughter vanished. Then he raced to the hotline connected to the military pass in Upperton built to oversee the Center's major launches. They might not want to listen to his daughter if she tried to alert the world in spite of her name and former fame, but they would listen to him.

Still, he couldn't help thinking that Bob was going to really kick himself for missing this one.

_**KP**_

"Shego," Kim appeared at her door just before midnight as she rubbed her eyes, and blinked against the glare of the light stood there in very cute pajamas that mirrored her trademark, if retired catsuit. "We need to go."

"Go where," she mumbled, staring at her through bleary eyes. "What time is it anyway?"

"Just after twelve."

"Midnight," Shego croaked, gaping at her.

Kim smiled. "What's wrong, Shego. Getting too old to stay up late?"

"Oh, you are so going to pay for that one," she growled, her eyes clearing, and her lips thinning in a grimace.

"Seriously, Shego. Something's coming."

"Define 'something?'"

"Aliens."

Shego groaned. "Not those loopy Lorwardians again," she complained.

"Worse. Much worse. These aren't coming to conquer. They're coming to kill us."

"How do you know that," she asked.

She tapped her head. "The symbiote told me. We need to go where it first crashed."

"Why?"

"I'm not sure," Kim admitted as they stood there in the door. "But I feel we need to go there before they arrive."

"And….when are they getting here," Shego sighed, not even trying to deny such a thing was happening, or possible. Unfortunately, in her world, craziness seemed the order of the day. Even five years after she had retired, insanity seemed to be the rule of thumb.

"Less than twelve hours."

"Geez. That's not much time. I suppose you told…..someone?"

"I'm letting dad spread the word. By now, I'm sure GJ, and the world's military know."

"Do you know where they're coming down this time?"

"Where else," Kim sighed. "Middleton."

"What is it with your town," Shego asked. "Do you people have some kind of weirdness magnet? Or what?"

"No clue," she admitted. "But we don't have much time, Shego. Will you take me to ground zero?"

"Ground zero? Okay, that's a new one."

"Please….."

"Okay. Okay, but….let me get dressed first. Doy, even I'm not going out in my pajamas."

Kim eyed her. "I don't know……"

"You do not want to finish that thought," Shego waved a finger in her face.

Kim only smiled.

"You might as well come on in while I get dressed."

Almost three hours later, they were moving stealthily around an overgrown field behind a dilapidated house. The neighborhood itself might have once been considered suburban, with an optimistically upscale design. It had not lasted as the city's gentrification faltered, and left only the lower class in the area to maintain already aging homes well past the point of being refurbished or restored. Kim ignored the houses, though, and said nothing about the implication that the old house beyond the shattered tree that once held her family's tree house was Shego's childhood home.

Kim didn't seem to see the neighborhood, though. If anything, Kim was focused almost entirely on the ground around the dead tree.

"What are we looking for," she demanded irritably, having not quite rested well of late since Princess came knocking yet again to disturb her carefully balanced equilibrium. Once again, she was getting dragged into the craziness she had sworn to leave behind. Could she help it if she was wearing her old costume tonight, since it seemed to call for it?

In her defense, Kimmie was wearing that weird purple thingy she called a top with her old cargo pants again. Shego felt that if she could go retro, so could she.

"You know, if you just wanted to stare at dirt……"

"Here," Kim suddenly exclaimed, and raised her eye patch.

Shego instinctively flinched, looking half away as the night flared with golden light, and the ground rumbled slightly.

"What are you doing, Kimmie," she hissed, looking around at some of the houses she could well imagine were populated with less than savory types. _Well-armed _less than savory types.

"If I'm right," Kim told her. "Getting the answers to all our questions," she said as the ground itself started to glow now. Only it was a brilliant white. A white so startling it looked as if freshly fallen snow suddenly covered the ground as the earth still rumbled.

Then Shego realized the white was not just all glowing light.

There was some kind of sand or dirt that was rising up out of the grassy field around them, and it seemed to be just as white as the light. After rising into the air before Shego's stunned eyes, it began swirling around Kim, and starting to form a ring before it condensed down in on itself and then a small, white sphere of glowing packed sand was hovering in front of her.

"Princess," she hissed as Kim reached out for the sphere even as a light came on in the house not far away. "What are you doing?"

"Communicating," Kim murmured, and sank her hands into the white sand.

"With what?"

"The master of the comet-ship," she told Shego as if it were obvious.

Shego gaped as Kim's hands glowed golden as they seemed to absorb the weird sand until nothing was left.

"Now I get it," Kim said after all the light show, and the tremors were done, and they were standing there with a bunch of teens staring out of the back door of the house at them as if unsure what to do about the trespassers.

"Get what?"

"No time to explain," Kim told her. "But we need to go get your brothers."

"For what," she exclaimed.

Kim stared her right in the eye as she said quite earnestly, "If everything I've learned is right, we need their help if we're going to save our world."

_**KP**_

"What's going on, dad," Ron asked as he noted the state of numbed chaos around them as Mr. Stoppable appeared to pick them up at the airport even as it seemed dozens of military jets were flying in and dropping off men and equipment.

"No clue, son. But I'm sure if it were something serious the government would have told us something by now," he assured him as he smiled at Ron and Yori as they climbed into the car.

"That's right," his mother said as Ron and Yori climbed into the back seat on either side of Hana's place in the middle of the seat. The little girl grinned widely, and smiled at her brother.

"Can we play again," she asked pointedly as she eyed him with a special gleam in her dark eyes.

"We'll see, kiddo," Ron winked at her, and Yori only smiled.

Hana caught sight of the small ring on her left hand, and cooed. "Ooooohhhhh, that's pretty," she beamed, eyes locked on the jewelry.

"What is dear," Mrs. Stoppable turned half around to ask her daughter.

Just as a brilliant flash lit up the sky, and exploded across the horizon.

"Maaaaannnnn," Ron groaned as the ground itself shook as what sounded like a thunderous explosion rumbled across the sky. "I really hate being right," he said, and shoved the door open again.

"Is it the premonition," Yori asked.

"'Fraid so," he said, and reached for a certain small bag he kept with him after they loaded the rest of their bags in the trunk.

"Ronald," his father asked curiously as the willowy girl jumped out with him, carrying her own small bag.

"Sorry, dad. I think we need to handle this one. We'll meet you at the house later. Just go home, and…..keep your heads down."

"Be careful, Ronald," his mother cried as they drove away, leaving them standing in front of the airport as men and women began to panic after the aftershocks grew more numerous, and it seemed something was still burning after that object had hit the ground not too far away from town.

"Let's get changed," he told Yori as they carried their ninja gear with them toward the terminal, and hopefully an empty restroom. "And then find out what's going on now."

"I'm coming, too," a child's voice informed them, and only then did they realize Hana stood right behind them, her youthful features solemn as she looked up at her brother and sister-in-law.

Ron's composure cracked just for an instant, but he knew all too well the power contained in his sister's small body even if she was not yet fully trained. "Only if you follow our orders, and don't take any unnecessary risks," she was told.

She nodded.

"All right, stay close. We're going to change, and then go find out what's going on."

"Right," both females agreed as they ran past the surging crowd to find an empty place to change.

"Man, I'll bet the Fearless Ferret never had these problems."

"Oh, Ron," Yori sighed, rolling his eyes. It seemed, in many ways, her husband would never change. She didn't mind a bit. She just hoped the mystical monkey master was up to this task, though. Even she felt something tangible already hanging in the air.

Something that could only be considered….evil.

_To Be Continued…….._


	5. Chapter 5

I do not own Kim Possible, or any other Disney character. I'm just borrowing them for my own view of alternative tales.

_**Kim Possible: Aftereffects**_

_**By LJ58**_

**Part 5:**

Kim urged Shego to hurry as she now drove them to Hego's house since the team was not at the tower. Despite the fact she had long had enough to track down the man, and even Shego's true names, she had never tried. It wasn't in her exploit anyone that way. She had still believed in playing fair, and did even now. Still, even she was surprised to drive up to a modest, suburban house with the name '_Goode_' stenciled on the side.

"Goode," Kim remarked, arching a single brow.

"It's pronounced Goh-day. I don't even want to think of how much teasing I got even before the green skin and freaky powers," she grumbled as he pulled into the drive behind a surprisingly ordinary little hybrid. "Now you know why I stuck with Go," she told her. "Aside from the whole distancing myself from the blue muscle-head," she admitted.

"I'd never tease you like that, Shego," Kim told her honestly.

Shego glanced over at her before she climbed out of the car, and nodded. "Thanks, Princess. But you'd be the only one."

"Is Hego….?"

"Married? Surprising, isn't it. But I don't know if she knows. So maybe I should just….."

"Shego," a large, bluish shadow appeared from out of the garage wearing blue and black pajamas.

"How could she not know," Kim wondered aloud as she stared at the big man, thinking Team Go must all have a thing about their color schemes.

Obsession came to mind.

"Kim Possible," the big man frowned. "What's going on? We heard you had been seriously in….."

The man trailed off, unable to keep himself from staring at her covered eye, and blushing, naturally, bright blue.

"Short version, Hego," Shego cut him off. "We need you and boys, because Kimmie got comet powers, complete with a download on a threat to the world that is….."

"Here," Kim cut in as she looked up even as a bright fireball flashed across the sky headed to a location southeast of them.

"What was that," Hego gasped as they saw the far horizon light up as it landed with enough force to shake the ground despite the distance involved.

"The end of the world if we don't stop it," Kim told him. "I need you to trust me, Hego. Gather the team, and rendezvous with us in Middleton. It's important. We need every one of you to stop what's coming."

"Heath," a sleepy-eyed woman asked as she came out wearing light blue pajamas, and a darker robe over them. "Who is it? What's going on now?"

The Reubenesque blonde stopped and stared at the two of them. "Shego? Kim….Possible? Oh, wow. I can't believe I actually finally get to meet you," the woman gushed.

"I'm sorry, Mrs. Goode," she told her. "But this isn't a social call. We need…..your husband," Kim told her.

"Of course. Of course. Heath, you should go get dressed. Do you want me to alert the boys?"

"Please," he nodded, and looked from Shego to Kim. "We'll be there as soon as we can," he promised.

"Use this to home in on our location," she told him as Kim handed him a small GPS unit with an active signal already displayed. "Shego and I will go ahead to try to slow down whatever landed."

"Don't be late, muscle head," Shego growled at him as they turned back for the car. "If Kimmie is worried, which is she, then we'd better all be worried."

"We'll be there," Hego assured her as he turned to run into the house after his wife.

This time, Kim drove. But she only pulled out of the drive to activate the air spoils and jets that lifted the small car into the air, carrying it toward its destination in a sudden burst of speed that rattled windows, and woke half the neighborhood as Heath's wife pulled a curtain back, phone to her ear, to watch them leave with round, anxious eyes.

_**KP**_

"Stoppable," Bonnie Rockwaller spat as she found herself flung aside on her way back from the flight she could not believe had just been canceled. "What's your damage, loser," she spat, knowing Ron only as the kid that didn't go to college. What else he was up to she didn't know, and didn't care.

"Apologies," a young Japanese girl told her as she followed Ron's wake with what looked like Ron's little sister.

"Jeez, you'd think they were running off to turn into….."

She gaped as just a few moments passed as she turned to see the chaos around her, trying to understand why there were so many soldiers and police suddenly all around her, and then Stoppable and the geeky girl burst out of the same bathroom wearing all black.

Talk about tacky.

"This way," Ron shouted, but only to the two accompanying him as all three actually leapt straight up, using the building supports to flip themselves higher, until they disappeared through a high side window.

"What showoffs," she snorted, and wondered what the odds were on finding a taxi since Monique had dropped her off earlier in time to get the flight she now couldn't take.

She walked out through the still surging crowd, and froze as she noticed something she had not before. Earlier, the crowd was running from the airport. Now they were trying to get back in. Pushing and shoving, and trampling one another. She barely got to safety against the wall near one door as she noticed the bright flashes to one side of the runway to her left.

Then she started hearing sounds beyond the crowd's panicked shouting.

Screaming.

People were screaming.

As if in agony.

"What's going on," she shouted at anyone that would listen.

"Aliens! Aliens are back," someone shouted back. "And they're _eating_ everyone!"

_**KP**_

Yori stood back, watching as Ron somersaulted away from the nearest thing that looked not unlike a wingless insect with massive jaws. Jaws that it used to devour anyone unfortunate to be speared by its claw-like hands. All four of them.

"I am out of shuriken," she told him as he paused to glance her way, Hana standing back, gaping in genuine horror herself.

She was fast and strong enough to drive back some of the creatures, but she couldn't stop them. Ron, faster and stronger, stunned them easily enough, but they just kept coming out of that huge, rocky ship that had carried them, and the soldiers couldn't even slow them down.

The nearest alien shook itself like a dog, and its four, squat 'legs' tensed to launch it at the three troublesome creatures in its path even as two blue cylinders slammed into the ground in-between them, and exploded with a white vapor. An instant later, the creature was encased in ice.

"Cryo-missiles?"

"Yeah," Ron grinned. "Only one person I know uses those babies," he said as he looked up and saw the unlikely sight of a small car fly past.

"KP's here," he shouted.

"Perhaps a retreat to consider new strategy might be wise," Yori told him as the small car flew back and forth, creating an icy barrier between the fleeing Guard troops and the oncoming aliens.

"I hate to run from a fight," he admitted. "But you might be right. We're not doing anything here," he admitted.

Looking up, he saw Kim's Sloth turning toward the airport, and pointed. "Let's go. If Kim's here, she might know what's going on."

"An excellent suggestion, Ron-Chan," she spoke more intimately for one of the few times of late.

"Don't worry, Yori," he smiled as he let her and Hana toward Kim's landing site. "If I know anything, I know KP probably has a plan."

They reached the terminal to find Kim, in mission gear, standing with Shego as they told the Guard to create a perimeter around packed terminal even as they suggested they work on evacuating everyone else.

"Kim," Ron waved, loping up to him.

"Ron? And, Yori. Oh, and Hana. Wow, you've grown," she smiled at the now seven year old girl who smiled back at her.

"So, what's up, KP? Tell me you know how to stop the invasion of the bug-monsters."

"I have an idea. But we're waiting for Team Go to get here. Until them, we just have to hold them back until Hego and his brothers arrive."

"Okay. Any ideas on that? Because I have to tell you, kung fu just isn't doing it this time."

"Yori, GJ is sending in agents with blue lasers. Bullets and steel won't stop these guys, because they can't pierce their exoskeletons."

"That….we have noticed," she agreed.

"Get a laser from one of the agents when they arrive. Hana," she told the girl. "You might want to help with the crowds, and help hold off any that get past us. Right now, it's too dangerous even for you."

Hana only smiled, but she nodded her agreement.

"And me," Ron asked grimly.

"Your Lotus Blade, Ron. Didn't you once tell me you could summon it from anywhere? Right now, that's probably the only other thing on the planet that's going to do the job. We have to hold these thing back long enough for…."

"Possible? I should have known. You show up, and doom just seems to follow you, doesn't it," a strident voice accused as the lieutenant signaled one of his men to intercept the furious brunette behind them.

"I see some things haven't changed," Kim murmured as the shrieking, cursing woman was dragged away accusing her of costing her millions.

"No," Ron agreed. "Bon-Bon is still one-hundred percent herself. So, tell me, how is Team Go going to….?"

"Ron, I don't really know. Call it…..a hunch. But we have to hold these things off, because they are here to literally destroy our planet. It's what they do."

"They have already been eating those they capture," Yori said with a sick expression.

"They'll do the same to the whole planet. Trust me," she told Ron. "So don't hold back."

"All right, KP." He smiled, and held up his hands as his eyes closed for a moment, confusing the officer. "It's mystical monkey time," he said as his closed eyes began to still radiate blue energies as the junior officer now in charge since his captain had been eaten gaped at the young man in black.

"Shego?"

"You know I'm ready, Princess," Shego grinned.

"Just do what you do best. And like I said. Don't hold back. We have to buy time for the guys to get here."

"Not a problem," she said with a feral smile, her hands lighting up with brilliant jade enegiers that swirled around her.

"All right," Kim told them as she turned to the nearest section of her ice barrier that was starting to crack.

"Let's get them," she hissed as a blue flash arched down to fill Ron's hand with a long, glowing sword as Kim's entire body erupted in a bright, golden glow.

"Whoa!" Ron exclaimed. "That's one bon-diggity upgrade, KP!"

"You ain't seen nothing yet, sidekick," Shego grinned, and launched a small, but deadly fireball the moment the three of the creatures appeared to core all three even as their own kind tore them apart, devouring every piece before coming on.

"Yori, Hana. Stay back," Ron shouted as he began to glow brightly himself, and charged in Shego and Kim's wake to break right even as Kim pointed, and one of the aliens just rose and somehow tore its own limbs apart before falling back into the dark horde behind it to slow them as they again turned on their own.

"Think the eye-thingy will work on these losers," Shego shouted as she started launching fireballs of superheated plasma through the bunched invaders with deadly results, making Ron glad she had obviously never really cut loose with them as he hacked his way through the creatures, hoping GJ arrived with those lasers soon.

"Unfortunately, no," Kim shouted back. "We have to do this the old-fashioned way for now."

"Fine by me, Pumpkin. Just don't get hurt. You're the only one here that knows what they're doing," she called back, slashing a glowing hand right through the mandibles and jaws of a bug trying to snack on her while launching a fireball with her free hand.

"Not gonna happen, but thanks for the caring."

"Don't get mushy on me now, Kimmie," Shego scowled. "It's not really the time."

Ron spared a glance to the two women sniping in a strangely familiar manner, but noted the old heat wasn't quite the same. That is, it wasn't as caustic, or bitter. He didn't bother to wonder what was going on as he focused on creating a new wall of alien corpses for the creatures to cope with, hoping that Kim did have a master plan, because even he could see they were going to get really tired before these things quit coming.

_**KP**_

"So, what's the deal," the purple-clad Mego demanded as he buckled into his seat as Hego warmed the Go Jet's engines.

"No clue," Hego admitted. "But whatever is going on, it has Shego and Kim Possible working together, and coming to us for help."

"Shego? Our sister Shego?"

"Do you know any other Shegos," Hego asked dryly as the twins Wego stayed quiet in the back. Mostly because they were still half asleep after partying all night at a frat party they had attended. They did not appreciate the sudden ringing of the phone calling them to duty, but when Heather Goode called, she had sounded serious.

"Okay, you got me. But did they say anything about why…..?"

"All I know is something landed in Middleton, and Kim Possible somehow predicted it could be the end of the world if we don't help her."

"Possible," Mego muttered. "Didn't she retire? And what's with the psychic crap? I thought she was just…."

"Mego," Hego growled as the hangar opened, and he powered up the engines. "I don't know. But I do know this. Even Shego looked worried."

"Shego? Looked worried?"

"She hid it well, but I could tell. She was scared."

"Then it's bad," Mego murmured as he frowned at his clenched fists.

"Probably."

"Hego?"

"Yes?"

"If it's that bad….? How the heck am I going to be able to help," he asked earnestly. "All I do is shrink."

Hego glanced at his brother, and said nothing for a moment. Then he nodded. "I don't know," he admitted. "But Possible said she needed all of us. I'm sure that she, like I, have no doubts that you're as much a hero as any of us," he told him.

"Why not switch on the EA band," Wallace asked with a yawn. "They might have something on this thing on there if it's that bad."

"Of coruse," Hego agreed, and switching on the communications panel, and then the emergency alert band he kept tuned to listen for serious calls for help from government and civil agencies.

"…….if you are listening, get out of Middleton," a genuinely panicked announcer was saying. "The city is being overrun by man-eating monsters that are killing everyone!"

"My God," both Wegos gasped, sitting upright and instantly awake now.

"The National Guard, with Kim Possible is trying to hold them back, but they are possibly thousands upon thousands of the creatures, maybe more, and they are overrunning the meager defenses thrown against them. So if you can here me, get out. Get out, and do not come back! This is not a drill. This is not a joke. Earth is being invaded, and we……!"

A burst of static stopped the announcer, and only static remained as the heroes shared a grim look as the brightly colored jet roared at top speed toward Middleton.

_**KP**_

"They're beating us," Ron complained as the alien horde surged around them, more than a few just ignoring them as they pressed on toward more helpless targets.

"I know," Kim scowled, starting to look taxed herself. "Fall back, and try to stay between the people and the bulk of the aliens," she told him and Shego. "It's all we can do until Hego arrives."

"I have to ask," Shego grunted, plasma-punching another alien as she fired another fireball at another, taking off most of its macabre head. "Just what is the mighty muscle-head going to be able to that we haven't been doing," she demanded, looking more than a little stressed by then.

"To be honest," Kim frowned, TK-punching another alien out of her way. "I'm not sure. I only know that unless Team Go comes together, we don't have a chance of beating these things. Because the worst is still yet to come."

"Okay," Ron frowned from nearby. "Could have gone all night without hearing that. Really, Kim. You need to work on your tact."

Kim gaped at him, but Ron just flashed a trademark grin, and winked before his sword flashed again, and they had a temporary path cleared before them.

"The airport is evacuated," the lieutenant shouted to them, firing his ineffective M16 more out of need to do something than actually helping. "But they're getting into the town, and we can't stop them."

"What about GJ," Kim shouted back, not daring to take her eyes off the things before her as she did her best to keep an eye on Shego and Ron.

"Five minutes out, but they already reported these things are spreading out in all directions. We just don't have the manpower, or weapons to stop them."

"We make a stand in the town, and go from there, lieutenant," Ron told him. "Now get back to your men, and keep the evacuation going!"

"He's right. Go," Kim shouted, and leapt up to stomp one of the huge insects about to try jumping from the wing of an aircraft onto the young officer's head.

"Go!" The man was no fool. He turned and ran for the last jeep, never looking back.

"There's no way we can do anything more here," Kim said. "Guys, let's all get into town. We'll draw another line, and hope Hego gets here before much longer. Right now, all we can do is try to save all the lives we can."

"Agreed," Ron nodded, and leapt toward the top of an nearby aircraft right behind Kim and Shego, to move up to the roof of the nearby terminal before running across, and leaping down, racing for the nearby town where lines of dark invaders were already forming as they spread out to hunt down new victims.

"Man," Ron grumbled, hoping Yori and Hana were all right out there. "I really hate being right."

"Come on, Ron," Kim raced slightly ahead of him. "We have to reach town. Hego has to be close by now, and it's going to be the only place he can land with the airport overrun."

"She's got a point, Stoppable," Shego panted, surprised she wasn't already wearing out like the old days. It was as if the closer she was to Kim, the more powerful she became.

That made her glance at Kim again, and she wondered what was really going on in the woman's head as they batted aside a few bugs as she raced past already abandoned parts of the town that had been Kim's home growing up, to stop even as they saw a young woman shrieking as she clutched a small baby to her as one of the aliens raised a 'hand' to spear them.

"No," Kim hissed, and a burst of golden energy flew out from one hand as a sphere struck and surrounded the pair, making the claw bounce off the energy bubble that now rose into the air, and carried the stunned mother and child toward a nearby truck being loaded with civilians.

"Here's where we draw our next line," Kim shouted, and pointed to both sides of the street, and golden spears shattered empty buildings on either side, tumbling them into the street to form a makeshift wall.

"Shego, guard the trucks until they get loaded," she shouted. "Ron, you're with me on the wall."

"We are here, too, Possible-San," Yori appeared holding what looked like a mini-gun. Only it wasn't an ordinary machine pistol."

"Amateurs," a familiar voice scoffed. "You screw up everything," Will Du said as he led forty GJ agents to surround the people still being evacuated. All of them armed with blue lasers Kim had already warned Betty might be the only thing that could help.

"Nice to see you, too, Agent Du," she grinned, and lifted and smashed a portion of wall down atop a group of bugs trying to go around them.

"Is Cyclops here, too," Shego asked.

"She's holding the other side of town," Will told her after cutting a bug in half, proving the lasers did work against the bugs as his agents began spreading out, firing at anything with more than two legs. "For whatever their reasons, these things only spread out to surround the town, and seem to be intent on cutting off the city for now."

"Of course," Kim realized, and used TK bubbles to surround and sever the bugs' heads now. She had quickly learned it was a more conservative use of her power. "We're here," she told Shego. "These things know we're the only ones that can really stop them, so they're after us."

"Oh, goody," Shego growled, launching a fireball at one of the creatures trying to leap from a nearby roof to the closest truck loaded with refugees. "Then why aren't they headed for Go City, too?"

"Look up," Kim told her.

Overhead, a startlingly white jet with colorful markings that was hovering over the chaos in the streets.

"Now we have a chance," Kim smiled for the first time as she slammed a suddenly huge TK wall into the nearest mass of aliens, driving them back, and flattening them to give Hego a place to land.

He took advantage of it, and quickly set the jet down even as they heard and felt a near-distant thunder that made even the aliens pause.

"Tell me that's not more bad news," Shego groaned as her brothers jumped out of the jet, gaped at the regrouping aliens all around them, and raced toward Kim and Shego.

"Miss Possible, when you said you needed help…..?"

"Yeah, it's a regular hoot, isn't it," Shego drawled.

Hego shot her a brief, scathing glance, but said nothing.

"How can we help with this," he asked, genuinely uncertain and anxious as he saw the GJ agents just barely holding back the hordes as they fired relentlessly at them.

Before Kim could reply, a deafening screeching echoed out over the city, cutting into their very souls as they cringed before the unearthly cry of rage.

"Uh, Princess?"

"That would be the queen," Kim realized.

"Queen," Will, Shego, Ron, and Hego all echoed as one.

"The one we have to beat to beat these guys."

"No big. Right," Ron asked hopefully as he noticed the bugs were actually starting to fall back, but remained knotted in a tight circle all around them.

"Well, it looks they have us right where they want us," Shego grimaced. "What now?"

Another shrill cry echoed as the thunder translated into faint tremors that were definitely growing closer.

"Uh, Kimmie? How big are we talking about here?"

Even as the heroes stood in the center of the main intersection, the ground trembled as if a bomb had gone off. Then it trembled again. Then again.

"Man," Ron groaned, looking up as a shadow loomed over them in the still brightly lit section of town yet to lose power. "I really, _really_ hate being right."

"The queen," Kim hissed.

"Miss Possible," Hego asked. "How are we supposed to beat that!"

"A very good question," Yori rasped as she stared up at the nearly twenty foot tall insect that stared down at them as if eyeing its next meal. For one of the few times in her young life, she was genuinely afraid as she stared up at the unearthly creature that had come to kill their very world. And she wasn't so certain it couldn't.

_To Be Continued………._


	6. Chapter 6

_I do not own Kim Possible, or any other Disney character. I'm just borrowing them for my own view of alternative tales._

_**Kim Possible: Aftereffects**_

_**By LJ58**_

**Part 6:**

"Just try to give us ten minutes," Kim told Ron and the others as she led Team Go away from the battle. "It's critical that we aren't interrupted," she told him.

"You got it, KP," Ron nodded, tightening his grip on the Lotus Blade.

"For an amateur, you're not bad. Just do what you have to do," Will told her, resetting his weapon's charge.

Even Hana had moved forward, having taken a laser from a fallen weapon, and looking grim as the young child stood beside her brother and his wife.

"This is so not the homecoming I had planned," he told them with a weak smile as the creature roared again, and Kim raced back behind several trucks with Team Go. She obviously needed time and space, and Ron was going to see she got it.

"Go for the head," Will shouted at those around him as half his men aimed with him.

"Good idea," Ron agreed, and the mystic blade in his hand became a large spear as he hurled it toward a huge, multifaceted eye.

Only to see a claw intercept and snap the mystic weapon in two.

"Okay, plan B," Ron said, and mentally summoned the weapon back to his hand that reformed a sword as the pieces came together at his urging.

Will gaped at that, but kept firing the deadly lasers at the creature that only lifted massive claws to deflect the blue light from its body, keeping it from doing any real harm.

"Okay, now this is just getting annoying," Ron grumbled, and raised his hand as he formed a large boomerang, and launched it.

This time the creature roared in pain and rage as it struck just under the joint of one 'knee,' and thick, yellow blood spurted from the wound.

"Finally," he growled, and caught his weapon as he prepared to launch it again.

But had to duck as a massive foot tried to stomp him.

"I think you have angered it," Yori grinned.

"Yeah, like that's a good thing," he exclaimed as he rolled and ducked as the ground shuddered and shook as the thing tried to trample him as the agents had to fall back to avoid being crushed, too.

"Look at it this way, Ronnie," Hana laughed grimly as she easily dodged the huge limbs. "We are buying Kim time."

"Oh, yeah. Gotta look on the bright side," he told his giggling sister, wondering if she weren't just shy of loopy at times.

Even as the creature continued to advance, threatening not only Ron and the agents, but the few trucks still trying to break the living barricade around them, a golden glow flared to life from a street not far off that was bright enough to light the darkness all around them.

The massive head turned toward that light, and screamed in genuine rage now as the defenders had to clamp their hands over their ears, it was so deafening.

"Wow, she's really pissed off now."

"Possible does have that affect on some people," Will agreed. "Apparently, it works on aliens, too."

"Definitely, dude," Ron agreed, thinking of certain nine foot tall, green aliens they had met.

"Looks like our time is up," Yori said, realizing the queen was now blatantly ignoring them to head for the golden glow.

"Man, I hope KP is ready," Ron said, catching his mystic boomerang again that was now being batted away with the same ease his spear had been earlier. It was as if once the thing spotted an attack, it could just neutralize it.

Not good, he realized grimly as it stalked toward Kim. Not good at all.

_**KP**_

"Shouldn't we be helping," Hego asked as they turned a corner, and stopped in the middle of the street where the aliens around them simply stood and watched. It was almost as eerie as watching them charge, Kim felt. "I mean…."

"Hego. We are. Now, listen to me. All of you. I don't have time for detailed explanations. The short version is these bugs are an intergalactic predator that go planet to planet devouring all life. Everything. It's how they survive. They won't leave until every last living thing is gone, and the world is a barren rock."

"My God," Mego actually whimpered.

"But one of the races that encountered them devised a defense. They created a super-being to fight it, and defeat them. Then they launched their creation out to precede the creatures so any other sentients the bugs found would have a chance to defeat them, too."

"How?"

"Us, Wego," she told one of the twins. "We are all pieces of a whole. That comet was actually a spacecraft carrying a special symbiote that could unleash that super-being. Only when it exploded, it was fragmented, and unable to form into a complete being."

"So we need to come together somehow," Hego frowned. "To create this....being?"

"Exactly," she said, and held out her hands. "Form a circle. And summon your power without actually using it."

"You mean our glows?"

"Right," Kim nodded at the Wegos. "Only you need to focus it in the center of our circle. Only by combining every last bit of our power can we reform the being sent to help us. Now, time is short, guys," she said as they heard the creature howling in fury from not far away. "You ready?"

"Ready," Hego told her, taking her hand as Shego had already taken the other.

"Guys," he glanced to his brothers. "Hero-time," he told them all, but looked pointedly at Mego.

"Why not. We don't have a chance on our own," Mego agreed, and took Hego's hand as the Wegos joined hands before grabbing Shego, and then Mego's outstretched hands.

"Now, focus," Kim told them, starting to glow a bright yellow. "Everything you have. Everything!"

"Holy," Mego's eyes rounded behind his mask as a golden sphere began to take shape around them, and a swirling rainbow ball began to form in the center of the circle they formed.

"Concentrate," Kim hissed, her own eye closed even as her eye patch suddenly flipped itself up, and her new eye opened.

And the creature shrieked in fury as it charged them, knocking aside, or crushing anyone or anything in its way.

_**KP**_

"Kim," Ron shouted, having followed the queen bug right toward the group now shrouded by a glowing light as something blindingly bright began to pulse in the center of their circle. "Look out!"

Two things happened as Ron shouted, staring in helpless horror as the huge bug headed for Kim, and the other heroes. A massive limb rose to start down, obviously going to try to crush at least some of those colorfully clad heroes.

Just a half second before the pulsing ball of energy exploded.

The queen roared as the force of the radiant explosion sent the bug flying almost fifty feet to land back near where she had first appeared, crushing a great many of her own. Ron turned from tracking the creature's sudden flight to stare at the nearly fifteen foot creature that looked like a bipedal tiger with huge fangs and claws and transluscent silver fur that shimmered like a rainbow. Glittering golden eyes stared down at the heroes, and Kim looked back with that freaky eye she had kept covered until now that was glowing just as bright.

Then the 'tiger' turned and charged toward the queen only then starting to clamber back to its feet.

"Ron," Kim shouted as the alien bugs all charged on cue again, and the fight was on once more. "I need you to do something," she told him as she charged through the horde, Team Go right behind her.

"Anything, KP. But what was…..?"

"Later," she cut him off. "This is important. Get Hana, and go back to their ship. The queen is only a manifestation of the hive mind controlling these things. Destroy the ship, and you destroy the mind, and hopefully these things are toast."

"I can do it, but….Hana?"

"Ron. We both know she isn't just a normal little girl. Trust me. You'll need her. Go!"

"On it, KP," the monkey master nodded grimly, and turned, sword in hand, to start cutting his way back through where he had been.

"MIss Possible," Hego paused to punch one of the big aliens aside. "What do we do?"

"We buy our defenders time to win, Hego. Mego. Shrink them, and then stomp them," she instructed him.

"But I can't….!"

"Yes, you can," she said, and turned his eye on him. "It's easy," she assured him as his eyes rounded as her golden glow orbed, and his mind opened.

He grinned. "You got it, Kimberly," he grinned, and suddenly grew five feet to match the alien's height, and then grabbed two, and shrank down, taking the pair with them until they were barely three inches in height.

Even Shego gaped as he grew again, leaving the bugs behind to be easily crushed.

"Shego, you know what to do. Wego," she turned to them. "The army needs manpower to get through the blockade, and get these people to safety. Help them."

"You bet," both young heroes grinned.

"Go, Team Go," Hego shouted as they reached into the fight.

"Gah," Shego howled indignantly at that annoying cry as Kim actually laughed.

"You missed it, and you know it, Shego," she said, before she used her TK to flatten another bug while forming dozens of spheres around the nearest bugs' heads before snipping them off.

"You're nuts, Possible," she shot. "Now cover that damn thing up. It's distracting me."

Kim laughed, but pulled her eye patch back down without using her hand as they continued to fight their way back to Will's band as Wego multiplied behind them to offer physical assistance to load civilians, drive trucks, or just take up fallen weapons where the beleaguered GJ agents or army had fallen.

Meanwhile, Mego was gleefully trampling bugs he shrank as easily as he once shrank himself as he easily dodged any attacks by simply becoming to small to hit. Usually taking more of the bugs with him as he went.

Hego's fists, always powerful, now impacted with force enough to crush the exoskeletons of the seemingly imperious bugs. Now they were badly injured by every strike, and the alien insects began to actually falter as they started hesitating, and then even pulling back from the four heroes who were cutting a deadly swath through their ranks.

_**KP**_

"What is that," Will shouted as a massive silvery tiger-thing leapt out of the darkness to slam into the queen before it could completely regain its feet.

"I believe it is on our side," Yori exclaimed as the claws flashed, tearing into the things armored exoskeleton as if seeking vital organ.

"Fall back," Will shouted to his people as the aliens rolled around, crushing whatever might be in their way as they battled with genuine ferocity as yellow, and blue-green blood began to fly.

"Yori, Will," Ron called as he cut through the last few bugs between them. "Where's Hana. I need her."

"Here," Hana shouted, dancing away from one bug with a grim smile as she somersaulted off a yawning still stretched out from a wall still standing, and simultaneously fired at two more bugs, severing their legs to leave them helpless in the streets as another agent removed their heads.

"Hana, Kim wants us to destroy the ship. She says if we do that, these guys are helpless. You up to it?"

"You bet," his sister smiled. "Let's go."

"You might need it," Will tossed a belt he tore from an injured agent he was helping limp back from the battle lines to her. "The cartridges are laser charges. The round spheres are explosives."

"Thanks," the seeming child grinned.

Will, used to unusual children by now in his world, didn't even think twice about the seven year old that was actually outfighting the bugs far better than his own people.

"Yori, fall back to Kim's position, and help guard the people. Right now….."

"Go, Ron-Chan," she said with a tight voice. "We will do what we must. As will you."

He smiled, then hugged her fiercely to his side. "I'll be back before you know it."

"You had better," the ninja woman told him. "I still wish to share our American style honeymoon."

"You bet," he said, giving her a quick kiss, and then nodding at Hana. "Ready, sis?"

"Always," Hana beamed, and they both charged into the night beyond the battling aliens.

"Amateurs," Will grit out grimly as he followed Yori back to the mass of refugees surrounded by what remained of GJ's agents as they fought for survival in what had rapidly become a no-man's land. "I'm always surrounded by amateurs."

"Will! Duck," Kim's voice shattered his distracted state as a jagged shard of a steel girder flew through the air to impale the alien that had risen up behind him.

He spun, firing at the already dying thing, and turned to Possible only to see the gore-spattered redhead was already lost in the seething mass of insects that actually seemed to be trying to get away from her and her new team.

That was…..hopeful.

_**KP**_

"Do you notice that none of them seem to be bothering with us," Hana asked as they moved ninja style through the deserted airport, noting a distinct lack of any bugs in their area as they sought out the massive ship that had brought the creatures.

"They probably don't think we're a threat," Ron grinned, the Lotus Blade still clutched in his hand as Hana carried her laser in one small hand, the equipment belt looped over her small chest.

"Or they're already all gone, and don't think anyone would be dumb enough to try this," Hana suggested as they saw the rising silhouette of a huge, honeycombed rocky sphere.

He wasn't sure how, but something told him this was more than a spaceship. It was the remains of what had once been a living, vital planet. And that if they lost, this was Earth's fate.

"You ready," he said, instinct guiding him to a large hatch that gaped open before him. Not so much a hatch, as a wound in the rocky ship. It looked as if something had just….chewed through the stone to create a passage.

"Right behind you," Hana winked.

"Cute," he drawled, and went inside.

He had wondered about light, but there was a weird, crimson phosphorescence on all the walls that gave just enough light to see. He led Hana into the eerie spacecraft/hive, and again felt that niggling instinct that had him taking one passage over another when he came to mazelike turns in the dimly lit hive that seemed to be abandoned so far.

Of course, why would the aliens stay behind when they had fresh meat waiting after a long fast?

He grimaced, knowing that that not been his thought. No way. He would never think that way. Then he frowned as mystical senses focused, and he made a startling realization.

"Kim," he murmured into the darkness.

"_You're close, Ron_," her voice seemed to emanate from his own head.

"Whoa! How….?"

"_Never mind. You must reach the hive mind, and kill it. It's the only way to save Earth, and everyone on it_. _Otherwise_…."

"Not gonna happen, KP. Not on our watch," he assured her as Hana only listened to his side of the conversation, but seemed to know what was going on.

"_And, Ron, if we all make it through this. Let's keep this trick our little secret_," that telepathic voice asked.

"You can count on me, Kim. You know I'll always have your back."

"_Thanks. Now, turn right. You're almost there_."

Then he stopped and gaped, recoiling at the massive, roiling, sphere of living flesh that was obviously some kind of brain. And all around it, dull yellow spheres that he was informed were eggs filled the massive chamber. Not thousands of them. Millions. Enough to overrun the entire planet.

"Time to step up, Hana," he said grimly, not needing Kim's guidance now as he stared in horror at the fate of his planet staring him in the face.

Right before a white-hot needle of pain lanced into his skull.

_**KP**_

"I get the feeling something is going on," Shego said as they were still begin pressed by the increasingly desperate bugs that had initially faltered, but now tried to once again swarm Team Go by force of numbers even as the queen was being badly mauled by that roaring tiger from the stars, having lost, or broken a few limbs by now, and bleeding far worse than the iridescent tiger.

Behind them, more than a few of the trucks were now genuinely cut off as the aliens swarmed in earnest, now focusing on defeating the heroes rather than seeking their prey.

"It's getting desperate," Kim told her, as she tried to fight even as she kept up a TK shielded between the people and the bugs who hammered at her shields trying to reach those helpless civilians. "Ron must be close."

"I hope so. Even with the energy boost you must have given me, I'm getting winded here, Princess," she admitted.

"Slowing down in your old age, Shego," Kim couldn't help teasing.

"Har-de-har-har. When this is over, I am so kicking your skinny butt. Just to prove I still can."

"Bring it, old lady," she laughed as Hego shook his head at them before slamming another hard fist into yet another bug in an endless wave of bugs.

_**KP**_

"Ronnie," Hana cried as he dropped the Lotus Blade, and fell to his knees.

"It…..knows….. Knows we're here…..to kill….."

"Then let's do it," she told him fiercely, and flung her entire equipment belt to the top of the pulsing, alien brain, and fired her laser at it just before it fell.

"A shrill, mind-numbing screech filled their minds more than their ears as the thing burst like a balloon from the gory wound, and the shattered ceiling began to fall, crushing more of it, along with thousands of the eggs around it.

"Good work, sis," Ron gritted out, reaching for the Lotus Blade. "Time to finish this," he said, and summoned his own mystical energies as the little girl's eyes began to glow bright white, her dark irises lost in the radiance as she looked toward the brain with a grim expression.

"Now," he cried, and flung the blade again and again as it sliced through the bleeding mass as the psychic wail began to flutter, and ebb.

Ron felt his strength grow again as the fading mental assault weakened even as Hana's mind reached out, and with the help of the Lotus Blade brought down a huge portion of the ceiling. Even as they did, Hana stepped back, listening to a growing rumbling, and asked Ron, "Time to go?"

"Oh, yeah," he nodded, well familiar with exploding lairs.

"Let's move," he shouted, and raced back the way they came without looking back.

_**KP**_

Kim noticed the moment the aliens faltered again.

It was the same instant the star-spawned defender roared as he swung a vicious right, completely tearing off the briefly hesitant queen's head who froze, trying to look off in another direction only to remember too late that danger lay before it. The queen shuddered as her huge head went flying one way as her body fell another.

The besieged defenders who saw it cheered in spite of the fact they were still surrounded.

But only for a moment.

"He did it," Kim shouted. "Ron did it!"

The alien feline now began to glow brightly, its many wounds healing almost instantly as it rose into the air and looked down. "Everyone stand still," Kim shouted even as those big hands exploded with green flame, and a hail of searing plasma rained down all around them.

But it only struck the now confused, staggering alien bugs that behaved as if they had lost all directions. And wherever that plasma fell, the bugs vanished. Not one human was harmed. Not one human was even touched. And all around them, living or dead, the bugs began to vanish.

Finally, the glowing faded as the massive feline lowered itself gently to the ground, and padded over to where Kim stood with Hego and Shego.

"_You are wise, Red One_," the warm voice filled her mind. "_Had you not heeded me, your world might well have been lost."_

There was no way she could just shrug this one off with a casual adage.

"I'm only glad you were here to help," she replied, looking up at the tall feline.

"_It is what I was made to do, little one. Now that your world is purged, I charge you and your brave companions to keep it safe_."

"That is what we do," she told him.

The big feline nodded. "_Well said, Red One. Now, I must ask your aid a final time. There may yet be other infestations left behind by these vermin. I ask you use the powers I have granted you to send me on my way once again to seek them out, and ensure they do not endanger other worlds_."

"Of course. Just tell us what to do," she readily agreed as she saw a familiar brunette wearing an eye patch of her own walking toward her.

"_You must join hands as before, and again focus your powers upon my person. It will be enough to send me back to the stars to continue my search_."

"Of course," she said again, and turned to call the others, who, she guessed, must have heard the same mental voice since even Mego and the Wegos were coming over to join them by now.

"Guys? You know what he wants?"

"We are ready, Kim Possible," Hego nodded somberly as he extended his hands to them as they formed a circle once again around the very tall feline from the stars.

Betty Director joined Will near one of the damaged trucks where incredibly not one of the people still inside had not been harmed. Five minutes ago she had been fighting for her life, and then it seemed every bug around her had just melted.

Now she was watching Kim and Team Go form a circle, and golden light rising to surround the alien cat-creature that somehow shrinking down to form a small, radiant sphere that grew to the size of a watermelon before it suddenly streaked straight up out of the atmosphere, leaving a rainbow trail behind it as it vanished into the stars overhead.

Leaving every one around the weary heroes staring in wonder.

"Whoa," a badly battered Will Du could only groan as the six powerful figures stood nearby looking up as they tracked their planet's savior they had not even realized existed.

"Yeah," Betty agreed, even her hard-nosed mask slack, and her eye filled with awe just then.

"So," Shego grumbled, one of the first to look down to eye first Kim, then her brothers. "What next, losers?"

Hego sighed as he looked down, and looked around their circle as more than a few people around them now began to applaud and cheer.

Kim slowly closed her right eye as she composed herself, smiling faintly as she shook her head.

"Come on, Shego. We were all winners today," she said, glancing over at where a little girl was hugging her mother, both with tears bathing their cheeks as they smiled at them.

And even more people were starting to applaud.

Everywhere, people were coming out of hiding, or out of the trucks where they had been waiting to live or die, and applauding them. Cheering them.

"Wow, this is….odd," Shego murmured.

"Don't you remember, sis," Hego smiled at her, daring to put a hand on her shoulder. "This was the way it used to be. The way it could be again."

"Go….Team Go," Mego asked her quietly as Shego glowered faintly at old memories.

"We have to have a name for our _new_ sister," the Wegos grinned up at her in genuine admiration. Or something a bit more considering teenage hormones.

"I have a name," Kim told them with a knowing smile that told them she knew exactly what was in their heads. For boys that were already possessed of a reddish tint to their masked features, they blushed all the same.

"That's right. There is only one Kim Possible. But we'd be proud to have you as part of our team," Hego smiled at her, nodding to her in silent thanks.

"I have an idea," Ron said as he, Yori, and Hana came over to stand with them. Of them all, Yori looked genuinely worn, and battered. But she didn't possess any powers other than her own will and determination.

"Ron. Good work," Kim told him, having been with him to guide him out before the plasma rain had seared away the last taint of the bug infestation behind them.

"Why not just go with _Team Possible_," the grinning monkey master asked with a crooked smile.

Kim stared at him.

At Yori.

Then smiled down at Hana.

"That's…."

"A pretty good…."

"Idea," Hego said, finishing what the Wegos, and then Mego continued.

All of them looked at the woman with them.

"What," Shego huffed.

"Well, Shego?"

"Princess," she groaned. "Do you know….? Ah, shoot. Okay, I'll _consider_ it. Under two conditions."

"Only two," Kim teased.

"Yeah. For now."

"Let's hear it, sis," Hego grinned, regaining some of his old spirit now that the danger seemed to have truly passed, and they were victorious once again.

"One. Kimmie's in charge. No arguments. No discussions. _She_ is our leader."

"Done," all four brothers agreed after they shared a momentary glance, then nodded firmly.

"Really," Shego blinked.

"You're other condition, sweetie," Kim cooed.

"Sweetie," the four brothers stared, slack-jawed, and unable to quite focus for a moment as Kim slid an arm around Shego's shoulder.

"I am rather curious myself, Shego-San," Yori smiled when she blushed green. "About your second condition," she quickly added as Shego glared ominously at her, making Ron chortle.

"Fine. Second. No one, and I mean absolutely no one, shouts '_Go Team Possible_.' Ever. If they do, I get to beat them senseless until they stop."

"And here I thought you were about to go all sentimental on us," Betty drawled as she and Will limped over to join the heroes.

"Not a chance, Bets."

"Don't call me…."

"Cyclops?" Betty's expression shuttered.

"What about you, Stoppable," she asked. "That was a fairly impressive showing you put on today. Are you in again, too?"

"Regrettably," Ron actually bowed to her. "I have other duties which take precedence over my former allegiances. To Yamanouchi, as sensei. And to Yori, as her husband," he smiled at the dark-haired woman at his side.

"Her _what_," Ron's mother shrieked from behind him, having just arrived after seeing her son on television battling against genuine monsters with her precious daughter at his side.

"We were coming to tell you, mother. But," he added, turning to Kim, rather than Betty. "If Team Possible ever truly needs Yamanouchi's aid, they have but to ask," he told her warmly.

"Yes," Yori smiled, too, bowing as she ever did. "It would be our honor to stand beside such brave, and honorable allies in their time of need."

"Thank you, Ron. Yori. I just hope you don't have to fight again too often. Not like this," Kim smiled wanly as she looked around and saw the aftermath of their battle, knowing all too well the lives lost, and the number of injured, and property damages that would remain after the cheers ended, and people had to just go back to living their lives again.

"But if it comes to it, I hope you know we are always ready to help if you should need us, too."

"Back in the hero biz, Princess," Shego asked her wearily.

"It seems I never left," Kim told her, and gave her a peck on the cheek.

Her brothers gaped again. Betty only arched a brow knowingly.

"So, are you two……ah…..?," Hego asked his obstinate sibling cautiously

"I've got another condition," Shego growled at him.

"What," he asked quietly.

"You can't say anything about my relationships any more."

"But….."

"Not a word," she said, seeing his blue eyes track to Kim.

"I believe we can agree to…."

"Uh-oh," Kim suddenly frowned, turning to look back.

"Kim," Shego asked as she started down the block.

"Kim," Betty and Ron both asked.

"Help," a man cried as he staggered out of the rubble. "Someone. Please, help. My family….is trapped. And….there's a gas….leak," he choked, dropping to his knees in front of them, still pointing behind him.

Kim reached down and touched the man's shoulder.

"Don't worry, sir. We'll save them."

She looked back up at her new teammates with a mischievous grin, arching a red brow their way.

Hego only stared blankly, but the three younger men grinned back.

"_Go_ Team Possible," they shouted, and raced after the women that suddenly exuded a golden aura that surrounded her entire body.

Hego grinned, and followed.

Shego sighed, muttered, "Doy," and loped after him as the Stoppables had a poignant reunion before Ron, Yori, and even Hana ran off to help.

"Dr. Director," Will asked as he leaned heavily on one leg as he tried to keep up with her as she turned to set up a new command post, and take charge of relief efforts until backup could arrive.

"Agent Du?"

"What now, ma'am," he asked grimly, staring in something akin to envy after the heroes that spread out with the surviving National Guard troops and GJ agents to seek out others that might yet need help.

"Now? Now, we help the survivors. Call in support, and get someone here to tend the injured."

"What about _them_," he hissed, hearing a powerful blast from nearby that somehow went straight up into the air even though it obviously wasn't doing any more damage inside the glowing ball of shimmering air that held it in place as it rose over the town before dissipating.

"Team Possible," Betty smiled solemnly. "Why, Will, I thought you might have guessed. I intend to recruit them," the wily agent smiled as she heard more cheers in the direction the heroes had gone.

"Those _amateurs_," Will croaked, and felt very lost just then.

Betty didn't notice.

She was too busy planning.

_Not The End……….._


End file.
